Flamingo feeding young (C)

[Dan Brown]

Another capture from the San Francisco Zoo. Full frame, adjusted and converted with NX2, PP'ed with CS3, sharpened birds and reduced noise in BG on seperated layers with Noiseware Pro, also brightened eyes, toned down adult bird with SH. C&C welcome.


Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld with shoulder stock
Shutter speed: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 8
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Optional,TTL
Metering mode: Center-weighted average
ISO: 800
Lens: 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
AF mode: AF-C

[Doug Brown]

Terrific interaction with good head angles on both birds. I would add some canvas on the right.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

agree with Doug on it being a little tight on right side. Interaction is very nice indeed.

[Sid Garige]

Very nice interaction well captured Dan. Nice job.

[Dan Brown]

Terrific interaction with good head angles on both birds. I would add some canvas on the right.

Thanks guys. I actually have numerous captures and some have more room on the right. These birds were in this feeding position for several minutes, providing opps to bracket exp and comp!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent feeding behaviour. I agree with more room at right, and I couldn't help but feel some more subtle details could be extracted from the head/face/bill so I did a quick and dirty job to see what could be done...I used the burn tool (0 hardness, shadows, 8% exposure) and liked what I saw (double pass on the bill). I also completely desaturated the blue and cyan channels, and performed minor clean-up to the BG.

[Dan Brown]

Excellent feeding behaviour. I agree with more room at right, and I couldn't help but feel some more subtle details could be extracted from the head/face/bill so I did a quick and dirty job to see what could be done...I used the burn tool (0 hardness, shadows, 8% exposure) and liked what I saw (double pass on the bill). I also completely desaturated the blue and cyan channels, and performed minor clean-up to the BG.

Thanks Dan for the time spent. I like the product! Here's another version thats a bit darker BG but has more room on the right.

[Stu Bowie]

Dan, cool intereaction, and well spotted and captured. Both reposts look good, and although darker BG's tend to make the subjects pop, in this I actually prefer the original tone of the BG.

[Troy Lim]

Terrific interaction with good head angles on both birds. I would add some canvas on the right.

+1 here. It is a great shot.

[Krijn Trimbos]

I echo Doug's opinion here. Lovely interaction, good BG, and great head turns. Would also add a bit more canvas to the right. Well done