Mundane Bird...Gorgeous Light

[Morkel Erasmus]

Went for some loooong overdue bird shooting at our local duck pond. With the arrival of summer there are hundreds of birds congregating on this island in the middle, which, incidentally, is quite close to the Western shore and has an open strip running towards the horizon with very little of the town obstructing the sunset light falling square on the island. Which makes for good photography! Callie de Wet who also posts on this forum has counted 28 separate species at this spot up to date.

This is the African Sacred Ibis, one of the more populous birds in the area. They are tricky to expose and not the prettiest bird around - but the light and sky here made this one stand out for me.

All critique much appreciated...

Techs:
Canon 7D with 100-400mm L IS USM @ 400mm
f5.6 @ 1/2000 SS @ ISO-1600
Exposure bias +1

[Norm Dulak]

Morkel:

Beautiful composition, exquisite and sharp wing display, and background made more interesting by the clouds. But as I view it, detail in the head and neck is missing. Can you lighten that region to bring out more of the detail there?

Norm

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I think all birds are pretty even these; nicely done with the light. I do wonder why the lacking detail as per Norm's comment? Maybe underexposure or a larger than normal crop? The IQ is not your normal work IMHO. :)

[Colin Driscoll]

In Morkel's defence, the head and neck are very unreflective in these birds- or at least in the Australian equivalent. Could be lightened a little but not much available I would guess. Lovely wingspread and light.

[Ken Watkins]

Morkel, your title sums it up, apart from the fact that the Sacred Ibis can in the right light look a lot less than mundane.

The wings are great but the head is not, the black head and nape are just not coming clearly more +ev was needed.

One of those shots that reminds you of the limitation of your camera and high ISO.

[Pieter de Waal]

Hi Morkel , good to see you back on the birds, like the late afternoon mood of this image reflected in the background clouds. The rest has been said and agree with Colin re head and neck.

[Mark Young]

Nice pose and wingspread. The soft pink and blue colours in the bg look very nice.

[Norm Dulak]

Morkel:

I have absolutely no idea how the neck and head of your ibis should look, so please forgive me if I've botched your bird. But what I've done here in this repost is to carry out a quick and dirty lightening of the head and neck regions, using Vivesa 2. And I'm afraid I may have brightened it too much.

It does bring out a bit more detail, but I'm sure you could do much better if you would be interested in giving it a try! :)

But in any event, there is much to commend your ibis as you posted it.

Norm

[Neil Roux]

Nice one Morkel.Can do abit of NR on the bird.Love the golden light too.Morkel where was this lake u refer too?I live 28km from u.Would love to hear where this was....

[Stu Bowie]

Mork, just love the light and colours, together with the banking angle. I do like the inclusion of the clouds, and these guys are always fun to capture.

[Dan Avelon]

sweet light and nice clouds in the BG, too bad focus is soft.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the varied comments guys.

first off - there isn't much more detail in this bird's head than what you see here...usually you know you've overexposed enough if you get eye and beak detail.

secondly - the focus isn't soft, it's pin sharp at higher resolution

thirdly - I beg to differ on the high ISO capabilities as I have taken highly acceptable images with my camera even at ISO settings of 2000-3200. obviously there is a noise but I have found the detail retention quite good. :D

this is about 70% of the original image.

thanks for the rework, Norm, the head is just lightened a tad too much :)

here is a rework with the head slightly lightened and the entire bird sharpened one more round.

[Dan Avelon]

thanks for the varied comments guys.

first off - there isn't much more detail in this bird's head than what you see here...usually you know you've overexposed enough if you get eye and beak detail.

secondly - the focus isn't soft, it's pin sharp at higher resolution

thirdly - I beg to differ on the high ISO capabilities as I have taken highly acceptable images with my camera even at ISO settings of 2000-3200. obviously there is a noise but I have found the detail retention quite good. :D

this is about 70% of the original image.

thanks for the rework, Norm, the head is just lightened a tad too much :)

here is a rework with the head slightly lightened and the entire bird sharpened one more round.

humm, how can a photo that is pin sharp at high res appear soft and lacking in smaller size? maybe I am missing something but can you post a 100% crop of the head from RAW? I'd be interested to learn... maybe it is the noise reduction you are applying?