Crowned Crane Portrait

[Ed Cordes]

I love Crowned Cranes. I just couldn't resist making this image. The intricate color and detail in their face and crown always amazes me. They are hard to photograph due to the contrast in their coloring. This image was made late in the afternoon in the Ngorongoro Crater.

1D MK4 with 500 f4 and 2 X TC. F8 with 1/1600 on beanbag low out Land Rover window. Cropped from horizontal and represents about 1/3 of total image. Processed in LR and CS4.

Thanks for looking. C&C welcome as always.

[Doug Brown]

Gorgeous bird against a nice BG. Tough to expose properly, but I'd try to get a little more detail out of the blacks. Good sharpness for 1000mm and a 2x wide open. It looks like the bird is turned slightly away from you. Otherwise like it a lot.

[Stu Bowie]

Ed, great portrait, and well done on the exposure. Those whites on the side of the head are tough to get right. Good looking crown. Overall sharp, and what a killer BG.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Ed, nice image. I liked composition a lot. Must be difficult to expose. As Doug said, IQ is great considering wide-open at 1000mm and this is only 1/3rd of orig image. Only wish is little head turn.

You can try the 180deg horizontal flip. Trick shared by Calie de Wet on one of Stuart's portraits. It will work well here I think.

[Fabs Forns]

A classic, I wouldn't turn away from it either :)
I hate to sound cliche, but a little head turn would improve it.

[Robert O'Toole]

Good Job Ed, especially considering the huge crop. Beautiful and great colors and detail.

Because of the shape of this birds head straight ahead looks like its facing away. I dont mind the angle here but as Fabs says a little turn would be nice.

Robert

[Ed Cordes]

Thanks for all the comments. I would like to clarify my statement about the crop. The original is a horizontal image. I cropped a vertical from it (the center 1/3) and then cropped some from the top. So, I am sorry if I mislead, but saying it represents 1/3 is not as dramatic as it seems. The left and right thirds were cropped off leaving the center 1/3 which was cropped from the top a bit.

Sorry if I created confusion.

RE head angle - the bird is looking straight to the right. I was hoping for a better angle, but it never came. The bird actually turned away and the moment was lost.

Thanks again for the comments.