Superb Starling, Kenya

[Melvin Grey]

Yes, that really is its English name - and very apt! Because of its irrediscent blue and green colours, and the bright light, one could follow an individual bird and photograph it a dozen times and get twelve different results.

Canon 1D Mk11, 500mm f4 IS with a 2x converter.
Exp 1/400 sec @ f8. ISO equiv. 800

On previewing this post I was rather disappointed with the rather dull colours of this resized jpeg compared with the A3 prints from the full size tiff file. However I will still submit it and ask for your suggestions but it does not do justice to the bird!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Beautiful bird and nice pose. I find it a bit too centered and a bit more sharpening and contrast would make it look even better in my opinion. There is some posterization in the BG, probably from working on the jpg.

[Dave Phillips]

very nice Melvin.
Note that you have posted the image in ProPhoto colorspace.
Convert to sRGB for web and colors will be much improved.
Striking bird

here is conversion, no other pp done

[Arthur Morris]

I like the orginal colors better. The face and bill look unsharp as if from too much SH/H. With the two fronds of acacia leaves I do not mind that the bird is centered.

later and love, artie

[Alfred Forns]

Just adjusted the brightness a bit in LAB color Do like the pose and presentation Would go to original to process again It is a fine image !!!

[Glenn Bartley]

Why dont our starlings look this cool???

[Leroy Laverman]

I like the composition quite a bit in this shot. Here's my take on processing this one. I have absolutely no idea what the true colors are supposed to be but to me this looked OK. I added some selective sharpening through an edge mask to help define the edges a bit more.

[Melvin Grey]

Thank you ALL for your help and suggestions - I feel that this is exactly what this forum is all about. I will work on the suggestions and, hopefully, produce better forum submissions in future.

Thanks again,
Melvin

[Dave Phillips]

I like the orginal colors better......................................

later and love, artie

please know that I did not edit the colors....only converted to sRGB colorspace as I thought that was correct thing to do

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Really like the alert pose and open beak in this image Melvin. I remeber these birds well and they are just beautiful and you did a fine job incapturing it. Some great suggestions above. Thanks for sharing.