Belted Kingfisher

[Karl Egressy]

It looks like I have no access to my new 2.0 T drive so I went back in time and post from the 0.5 T drive.
This picture was taken about a year ago, on 17th of Sept.
Thanks for looking.

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Manual Exposure
Tv 1/320
Av 5.6
ISO 400
EF500mm f/4L IS USM +1.4x

[dankearl]

Nice BG and Perch. I am envious, A hard to capture bird for me, they never sit still!

[Karl Egressy]

Thanks Dan.
I forgot to mention that I went there when it was still dark, set up with a Kwik Camo, used a call
(it did not work)
and still had to wait until people started coming and kind of "chased"
(they did not really chase) him towards my place, the other side of the pond, that was.

[Jim Fenton]

Nice job ion the exposure as the whites look fine and the bare branch isn't blown out.

Love the BG with the exception of what looks like clone marks or something to the right of the birds breast?

I think you could have opened up the left side of the head and left wing just a hair with the dodge tool although that may have nixed the direction of light effect.

A smidge more of a head turn would have been nice, but believe me, I know you can't control that when birds are perched a distance away.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice job ion the exposure as the whites look fine and the bare branch isn't blown out.

Love the BG with the exception of what looks like clone marks or something to the right of the birds breast?

I think you could have opened up the left side of the head and left wing just a hair with the dodge tool although that may have nixed the direction of light effect.

A smidge more of a head turn would have been nice, but believe me, I know you can't control that when birds are perched a distance away.

Thanks, Jim. Your comment is appreciated.
I looked at the original as I wouldn't have remembered what I did one year ago.
There was no cloning done to any part of the picture, it was clean as indicated by the original.
What I did was other than the regular steps in CS5;
1. I warmed up the picture, it was too cool.
2. I selected the perch and darkened it just a little bit in a separate layer. I did it just before posting, so I remember that one.

[Arthur Morris]

Lightened the dark areas of the face with non-destructive Tim Grey Dodge and Burn on a layer and ran a linear burn on the whites that did not show overexposed but did not have much detail . Love the dainty bird and the fine image design.

[Karl Egressy]

Thanks Artie, I appreciate your comment and help.
The head (detais) looks so much better.

[Arthur Morris]

No probelma. Both the Dodge and Burn and the Linear Burn are detailed in Digital Basics.

[Gary Esman]

Nice shot Karl! Did you remove something from the background? Looks like some cloning issues in front of the bird and by the left shoulder.

Gary.

[Randy Stout]

Karl:

The composition is lovely here, as are the rich tones and attractive subject. Arties work on head brings it up several notches.

I am seeing a number of areas of splotchy color in the background, and I think this is not from cloning but a capture issue. I have had an occasional raw file with this, for no obvious reason.

Perhaps someone such as Roger Clark can elaborate on why you get this splotchy color effect in the raw file.

Cheers

Randy

[arash_hazeghi]

great light and a nice pose plus a nice BG!

[Robert Holguin]

Real nice shot. Great pose and excellent background. Arthur's repost takes it up a notch. Well done.