Yellow Weaver

[Arno Ellmer]

This was taken at a weaver colony on the South Coast ,KwaZulu Natal ,South Africa
The Yellow Weaver is one of 16 weaver species occurring in Southern Africa.

I added some canvas at the top.

Canon EOS-1D Mk III
Canon 500mm F/4 + 1.4 x
1/2000 sec
f/7.1
Av
ISO 640
Exp. Comp +1/3
Metering Mode Evaluative

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Good-looking specimen and eye contact, I also like the BG. I wish the bird were angled toward you a bit and might give it a bit more room at the top.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the wing position, colors and BG, tough bird to get in flight! I would sharpen the head more.

[Gal Shon]

That is a difficult one... well done.
Beautiful BG and pose. It looks like the critical focus is on the closer wing.
Ditto Arash on sharpening the head a bit more.

[Fabs Forns]

Agree on the critique above, not an easy one to pull. Big welcome to BPN and looking forward to more.

[Sid Garige]

Great job getting the tough guy in flight.

[Arthur Morris]

Pretty darned amazing. Killer wing position. How did you focus??? There are more than a few hot pixels along the edges of the bird. a 15% BLUE Photo Filter did not help. I forgot to try to De-SAT the yellows a bit.

[Arno Ellmer]

Thank you for all the constructive comments.They are all appreciated and noted.
The focus point was on the wing ,near the right foot at the back .... so lucky to have just caught the bird in time !

[Arno Ellmer]

Pretty darned amazing. Killer wing position. How did you focus??? There are more than a few hot pixels along the edges of the bird. a 15% BLUE Photo Filter did not help. I forgot to try to De-SAT the yellows a bit.

Thank you for your comments ,Arthur !
Are you referring mainly to the whites along the top of the head and the beak?
The focus point was on the wing near the right foot.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Great pose and light here.. nicely done..

[Arthur Morris]

Thank you for your comments ,Arthur ! Are you referring mainly to the whites along the top of the head and the beak? The focus point was on the wing near the right foot.

That sounds right on the overexposed pixels. Bring the image into Photoshop, open a Levels Adjustment Layer, hold down the ALT key, and place the cursor on the highlight slider triangle. The hot pixels will show as white on a black screen. Unless the image as way, way overexposed you can likely recover the details by re-converting in ACR. There are many excellent tutorials in the ER Forum.

It sounds as if you were on a tripod, that you cropped a bit from the back, and were using central sensor AI Servo AF. Can you confirm all of that :)

[Krijn Trimbos]

Great wing position, great bird, and BG. Great action captured, I just wish for a bit more sharpness. killer image!

[BenBotha]

Arno, Baie netjies, dit was seker by Sanlameer se visdam! Well done, I like the pose!

Ben Botha

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Arno, I like the flying posture with a killer wing position. Sharp, and the red eye stands out nicely. Was this from a take off - if so, very well timed, as they are pretty swift on take off.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Fantastic sharpness and posture Arno, well done. You did very well to freeze the action at that shutter speed, usually the little guys need at least 1/3200. I would sharpen the head just a little bit more, and perhaps increase the mid-tone contrast a tiny bit.

[Arno Ellmer]

Thank you all for the kind and helpful comments.Always appreciated.
I will repost after following all the very helpful advice. :)

[Arthur Morris]

Arno, You missed my new questions in Pane 11. Best to subscribe to Reply Notifications :)

[Arno Ellmer]

My apologies for missing your questions,been a bit busy.

Used Manfrotto tripod with MF fluid head.
Cropped from back and bottom (about 40 % )
Al Servo AF , sensor happened to be at top for this one.

Thank you ,Arthur , for your constructive comments and assistance .

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the info and no sweat. However you did it, AFing on a flying songbird deserves a toast!

[Arno Ellmer]

Thank you all for the comments.Always appreciated!:)