Long tailed Widowbird

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Nikon D3s 600 VR taken at 600mm. 1/800sec at 5.6. Iso 2000. I had to do some cloning to the Bg. I like this image because of the colours and wing position. I should have maybe used a higher ISO to get sharper wings.

[arash_hazeghi]

awesome pose and light, wish to see this gorgeous bird in real life.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

This bird rocks. What a shot. Loved the bird angle here...and the Bg certainly takes it sevral notches up

I think the bird will definitely take a little more sharpening. But I'd exclude the eye as the catchlight might become a little unrealistic after sharpening.

[Bill Dix]

Spectacular bird, beautifully captured and lovely comp and good exposure of the blacks. I don't mind the oof wings, but my eye is drawn to a small black like outlining the top of the bill. Don't know if this is the result of the cloning or something else. That's a nit; shot is wonderful.

[Stu Bowie]

Sweet light Vivaldo, and what a great flying posture. Magic BG colours too.

[Pieter de Waal]

Excellent capture Vivaldo, lovely pose , light and exposure. I like the flash of light on the wing and tail feathers, was this early morning or late afternoon ?, and also don't mind the blur on the wings.

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Thanks for all comments and suggestions. I have re-posted image with a bit more sharpening. The nit is a clone, as I was trying to fix the original bill. The re-post is the bill as shot. I am not sure why the original has detail missing near the beak Pieter this was taken yesterday afternoon at Rietvlei.

[Chris Kotze]

Stunning light exposure and colours, superbly captured Vivaldo

[Todd Frost]

Very nice light Vivaldo. Nice pose captured with a sweet bg. Sharpness in re-post looks good. Well done.
TFS
Todd

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Repost is a winner.

[DanWalters]

Repost looks great! Nice colors and the pose creates a real nice design.

[Duane Noblick]

I agree with all the comments above....like the wing position and the light. That's some tail it has...

[Marina Scarr]

The repost improves this already great image. I don't have a problem with the movement in the wings b/c the tail and BG really have all the focus. The tail is flowing and sharp and the BG is simply divine. The wings show movement, and it all works well together. Congrats!

[Daniel Cadieux]

You guys and your Widowbirds!!! A wonderful Red-winged Blackbird on steroids The repost is indeed sharper, but I must admit I prefer the smoothness of the tail on the OP. I think somewhere in the middle would be best. Excellent BG as already mentioned (I owuld fix the area near the tail tip though), and a nicely flowing comp.

[Bryan Hix]

The re-post puts it over the top for me. I would love to have one of these guys fly into a marsh with a bunch of RW blackbirds. Just to see the look on their faces.

[Arthur Morris]

Both are superb. And yes, killer sweet BKGR. Love the angle of the bird to the sensor; it provides a killer view of that amazing tail. I would definitely add some CYAN to the REDs in Selective color to tone them down, especially in the repost....

Thanks a ton for posting such a wonderful image and for your membership support.

[Herb Houghton]

Beautiful bird, the repost is better IMO, it pops better.

[Michael Lotito]

Incredible capture!

[Kiran Poonacha]

This is one bird I really wish to see.. beautifully done..

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Thanks again for excellent comments and suggestions Here is another repost, reduced the reds as Arthur suggested. IMO the image looks alot better.

[Arthur Morris]

The RED is still too red where it is lit by the sun with lots of hot pixels in the JPEG. I painted a mask of the sunlit REDs, added 100 points of CYAN, and reduced the RED SAT 15 points to come up with the repost here. (I started with the image immediately above.)

Your file size was tiny. < 200kb is fine.

[Nico Steenberg]

What a shot Vivaldo :eek: A killer for sure !!!!!!

[Vivaldo Damilano]

Arthur

Thank you so much. It is a great improvement with regards to the blown reds. I had added cyan with a curve in PS but made the mistake of not adding a mask. I am thoroughly enjoying the site – learning all the time. While on the subject of learning, my wife has been in contact with Jim to order some of your books(CD). I hopefully will recieve them in then next two weeks, cannot wait

Vivaldo