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Thread: (C) Hooded Vulture: How Do You Make An Ugly Bird Look Good...

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    Default (C) Hooded Vulture: How Do You Make An Ugly Bird Look Good...

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    Took this African Hooded Vulture photo in natural light on a cloudy day at the St Augustine Alligator Farm recently. Set my color balance to CWB setting. Feel it makes a big difference with a brown animal instead of AWB.

    The African Hooded Vulture breeds in a stick nest in trees (often palms) in much of Africa south of the Sahara, laying one egg. Birds may form loose colonies. The population is mostly resident. One of the smaller vultures of the old world with a length of 70cm, a wingspan of 210cm and an average weight of 2.12kg (4lb 11oz)

    Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals and waste which it finds by soaring over savannah and around human habitation, including waste tips and abattoirs. It often moves in flocks, and is very abundant. In much of its range, there are always several visible soaring in the sky at almost any time during the day.

    This vulture is typically unafraid of humans, and frequently gathers around habitation. It is sometimes referred to as the “garbage collector” by locals.

    The Hooded Vulture is a typical vulture, with a bald pink head and a greyish “hood”. It has fairly uniform dark brown body plumage. It has broad wings for soaring and short tail feathers. It is a small species compared to most vultures.

    Would you redo the catch light?

    Enjoy...

    Canon EOS- 7D
    EF 500 mm. f/4.0 L + 1.4 TC
    Bogen tripod with Wimberley mount

    1/250 sec. @ f/4.5
    ISO 1000

    Canon D.P.P. 15% crop
    PS/ CS 4
    SS/ FocalBlade

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    BPN Member Alan Murphy's Avatar
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    Nice comp and detail in the head. The lack of DOF leaves the shoulder a bit soft.

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    Beautiful, I like the colors, overall comp, agree about DOF,
    also there are few bright spot on the upper edge of the bill,
    I think you could remove those.

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    Alan & Ilija,

    Thanks for the kind comments. I was about 30' away and thought my aperture would have more in focus. My bad. Will shoot some more images of this guy stopped down...
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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    I like your comp with the body hugging the right edge all the way to the bottom. The hair-do reminds me of Dennis Rodman!:D

    Did you run NR on the complete image? I ask because the plumage seems to be smooth just like NR would do...

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    Daniel,

    I did run Topaz Denoise 5.0 on the entire image. Thanks for your comments...
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    BPN Member Bill Dix's Avatar
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    Lovely colors and comp. I think DeNoise did smooth out the plumage. I usually run it on the bg only; but when absolutely necessary I find DeNoise 5.0 can hold detail pretty well if you run only slight NR on the bird, and push the Reduce Blur slider up to compensate for that smoothing effect.

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    Bill,

    Many thanks for letting me know how to use Topaz Denoise 5.0 better. Really appreciate the advise...
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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Love that face and the soft light and the hunched over pose. For me a bit lighter overall might be better.
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    Wonderful image of a spectacular bird. Like the richness of the colors. Sharp where it counts -- eye, bill, and feathers under the neck -- but I agree with Alan about the OOF body. As you already stated, stopping down would have been better. Also, I agree with Artie that it can go lighter.

    The BG has some "swirly" artifacts that I commonly see in green BGs with my 7D. Wish I knew what causes them and how to eliminate or avoid them.

    JG

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    John & Artie,

    Thanks for the kind comments. Appreciate the tip to consider a lighter image. Seems I still stuck darker images. Always liked color negative prints that were 1/2 stop darker than the negative. The BG consists of a fence and trees with leaves and bark. Have seen swirly artifacts with my 1D also. Maybe a result of my NR software. Need to check it out...
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    Charles, I also thought the "swirly" artifacts that I see with my 7D might be due to NR, but when I go back to the RAW file, they are there as well.

    John

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    I actually like the DOF effect with the sharp head and softer feathers, ( although softer from some NR. ) With regards to the catchlight, I would try and lighten the eye, and redo the catchlight.

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