Whit-faced Ibis

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Sony a700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO1600~1/1000sec~F5.6~manual exposure~overcast~HH~1-20-2011~Brazos Bend State Park, Texas~CS5-Redfield Fractalius
A scratch art attempt. Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

my website

[Christopher Miller]

Very nice scratch art, Bill. It gives a very neat look to the image. I like the pose and details. The only thing I don't entirely like is how the bird's body doesn't show the level of fine detail that the head, legs, and perch show, and instead looks "noisy." I think if there was a little more feather detail in that area, it would look stunning.

[Hazel Grant]

agree with Christopher on the detail balancing.

like the pose and head art especially.

[Steve Adkins]

This has such a remarkable 3D quality, Bill. It just seems to "pop" off the black BG. Nice job!

[Indranil Sircar]

Beautiful scratch art, Bill. I like the pose and the color of the bird. The pattern on the body seems like another scratch art paining! The only thing I would suggest is to remove the thin white line under the tail section that separates bird from the bg, if it were mine.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Christopher , Hazel, Steve, Indranil. I see the point about lack of detail, and it is partly because the detail may have been too subtle for fractalius and my inability to get good detail in those specific feathers(not just in this image, but in general with this type of bird). I don't know if you have ever seen a non-breeding plummage white-faced ibis but it has dark purple/brown body feathers with slightly lighter feathers that appear different colors depending on light direction. I have yet to figure out what the problem is and it is something I've been concentrating on quite a bit lately. In any case I have posted the base image.
Good point Indranil, those lines need to be diminished. regards~Bill

[Steve Adkins]

Thanks for sharing this version, Bill. The body feathers coloring is just gorgeous!

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Bill, I think this looks great. The lack of detail in the feathers is an interesting problem. I think it is probably more the case that there is too much detail to resolve. It is the diffraction caused by these finely detailed feathers that gives that iridescent look. In a scratch art work, the look that you got could be achieved by "pecking" at the ink rather than scratching, so I think it works!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks Kerry. I think you are probably right about the feather structure being unusually "fine" and this may very well have something to do with the light diffraction properties. When I get close to these birds I always shoot head shots. I'll try a few closeups of the body plummage next time I'm in the field, and if the theory holds up I should see detail. regards~Bill

[denise ippolito]

Bill, I'm late to the thread but I will say that I like the original image a lot and agree w/ the comments on the first pane. For the original image I would add some sharpening to the neck and face and right side of perch. I like the high key look.

[Richard Lovison]

William,

I like the pose and composition. Great job with the effects to create the look of scratch art though I agree with Chris and Hazel on the body detail.

I noticed you shot at ISO 1600. Did you perhaps use aggressive noise reduction? It's use can create the look in the neck and body feathers that you have in the second post.

Richard

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for posting the orginal. Fascinating bird. I had never, as you suggested, seen one in this state. (You know, when I first glanced at the scratch art, and now at the original, those side wing feathers remind me of a stained glass window design.) Seeing the original, I can understand the differentiation between the head/neck details and the body. Guess we are all looking at it from more of an art perspective, looking for more balance in the scratch art. Perhaps trying Kerry's suggestion would work.
don't take all our comments as all negative. It is a beautiful bird, beautiful scratchart.