Photo taken in the Kruger National Park , Jan 2011.
Canon 50D, 300f4L & 1.4TC (420mm) Exp 1/640s f/5.6 (wish I shot at larger fstop number to get tail detail). Thanks for looking :)
Was this shot vertical? While the pose would seem to lend itself to a vertical crop, I wouldn't mind seeing this as a horizontal with the birds eye on the left hand side thirds line. I tried this out with adding canvas and liked it.
Comparing your image to some of those posted in Avian I would suggest that you make a small curves adjustment to up contrast a little.
Did you do anything at the left hand side of the bird's body and tail? Just that it looks a bit "cut-out".
Johan, what a beautiful bird! You got a lovely pose and HA here. You're right that a bit more DOF would have helped - that tail is really quite soft compared to the rest of the bird's body. I do like Ben's repost - it gives a little more punch to the bird and the BG - really brings the light up a notch. Only other thing I'd suggest is playing with a selective eye curves adjustment to bring out the catch light a bit more.
Oh, forgot to mention about the sky. I selected it and applied one of the cooling filters in PS. It was only about 10 minutes ago, but can I remember which one. No :)
hi, thanks for taking time to comment everyone and Ben for applying some proper editing knowledge :) My PS skills still leave much to be desired. I really like your changes. Ben, we call them Troupand here in SA, actually first time I photographed one, dont see them often where I live, but in the southern part of Kruger national we went to they are quite common. This guy was so close that I had to shoot vertical just to not cut his tail off. I have a few other shots of them but really liked this guys head angle.
Lilac breasted roller (Troupand)
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