Another image from my recent trip to Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Taken from vehicle , beanbag.This little guy kept flitting ahead of the vehicle and move just as I was ready, eventually stopped long enough for a few shots. Fullframe added canvas on right and bottom blurred BG
Beautiful bird, Pieter, with spectacular colors. Image is nice and sharp, but you could have stopped down to f/6.3 or f/7.1 to get the tail in focus. Exposure is good, but I think the bird's head could be lightened a bit.
The entire upper part of the BG is distracting to me - there are some artifacts, particularly in the URC. As Jim suggests, some work on this area would improve the image.
Beautiful. Gorgeous bird and superbly sharp image. Great colors.
If anything, I wish the end of the perch wasn't freshly cut. I would also consider cloning out that bit of branch that's forking downwards.
I also find it slightly tight above and below, but do absolutely love it as is.
Exquisite bird, colors, image design, and BKGR. It could use a bit more space all around. The broken ends of the perch were bad luck. Be right back.
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It took a bit of effort but the results were well worth it (to me) as the bird and the image are so, so beautiful. Removed a few nubs from the perch and then reworked the end of the perch. It looked to phony so I went back and grabbed the "end" of the perch from the original, rotated and enlarged it, and tidied it up a bit. I am quite proud of my efforts :)
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ps; Most of the work done with the Clone Stamp Tool and a series of Quick Masks as described in Digital Basics and APTATs I.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
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Thanks Ken. No good for most contests but very good for wall hanging and for sales :)
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Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
Thanks all for your kind comments and suggestions.
I was'nt happy with the oof broken end of the perch but was in two minds wether to fix it. Arthur you made up my mind , great job on a tricky bit of cloning thanks. I now need to try it as well. Will also do some work on the background which was a sand dune with shadows. I suppose when shooting in the wild without setup and with birds not behaving a little leeway in processing is alllowed.
John G. thanks for your suggestion I agree. The bird kept sitting in the shade so it was a compromise between shutterspeed and aperture and the bird only gave me a few shots.
YAW sir. Very little cloning and lots of Quick Masking :) And I agree that some BKGR work would be advised. Try using the Clone Stamp Tool at about 40%.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,