Since It Quit Raining....

[Arthur Morris]

Since it quit raining non-stop on Sunday afternoon we've had only one half clear morning down here. And I really enjoyed that 20 minutes of sunshine.... I am hoping for more soon .

This image was created with the tripod-mounted Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at zero: 1/400 sec. at f/11 set manually.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome and I am here to learn too .

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Very sharp on head and neck with graceful fall off of DOF on back.

Nicely exposed. Great BG and colors overall.

I might clean up the small specular high light on bill tip.

He seems a bit large in the frame. For the sake of the members, could you elaborate on your usual guidelines for size of bird in frame? Do the guidelines vary depending on head shot/portrait vs. a full body shot?

I like the bill clear of the back, no merge.

Cheers.

[Kiran Poonacha]

Beautifully executed closeup Guru.. like the DOF and the design here. beeautiful HA too..

[Brendan Dozier]

Awesome IQ, detail, & color, Artie! Love the eye, what kind of bird? Randy makes some good suggestions.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Love the head angle and the background. Sharp and excellent detail.
Well done.

[Herb Houghton]

Great exposure and the details are good especially on the crown and beak. I agree with Randy about the single highlight on the tip of beak, although I didn't see it until he pointed that out.

[Bill Dix]

Love the pose, with bill clear of back. Great dof at f11 with entire bill and eye in sharp focus. Beautiful composition. Highlight already noted.

[Stu Bowie]

Artie, super pose with a pefect HA. The IQ, detail, colours and sharpness on the head and bill are simply superb. I really like the overall light and exposure too. I would have expected with F/11, that the body would have been in the DOF range.

[Gerald Kelberg]

Great portrait composition and excellent use of depth of field to get all the eye and the beak sharp.

I actually like that little highlight on the tip of the beak - it repeats the catch light from the eye and somehow stops my eye from going beyond the end of the beak.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Arthur! I like the details, sharpness, DOF and composition.

[yogesh_puranik]

simply stunning sharpness grt details..and HA..superb..

[Ron Sprunger]

Looks to me more like a grain of sand on tip of beak. The bird appears to be a Sandhill Crane, and a very handsome one at that. Where did you find him? I'm comfortable with the crop; it's a facial portrait with plenty of room, and the OOF back giving context and substance to the image. I especially like the subtle colors, with no garish exaggeration.

[Arthur Morris]

Artie: Very sharp on head and neck with graceful fall off of DOF on back. Nicely exposed. Great BG and colors overall. I might clean up the small specular high light on bill tip.
He seems a bit large in the frame. For the sake of the members, could you elaborate on your usual guidelines for size of bird in frame? Do the guidelines vary depending on head shot/portrait vs. a full body shot? I like the bill clear of the back, no merge. Cheers.

Thanks Randy. It is a specular highlight at the end of the bill, and you know that I hate "bill shine." I looked at this this single, soft spec hi and decided that it added character so I left it.... My general rule is to go no larger than 75% of the width or height of the bird for portraits that include the whole bird. With body parts images all rules are off (except for pure head portraits where I go back to the <75% rule.) This is probably 10-15% off the bottom and 10-15% off the left. I love the bird's high in the high left corner and the slight pano look. For me, I would not change a pixel compositionally here. Good question; TFA. Is it OK if Mods and participants learn too .

[Arthur Morris]

Here's what I started with.... A bit of bill clean-up, and a 15% Linear Burn on the bright WHITEs. And the perfect crop :).

[Arthur Morris]

Looks to me more like a grain of sand on tip of beak. The bird appears to be a Sandhill Crane, and a very handsome one at that. Where did you find him? I'm comfortable with the crop; it's a facial portrait with plenty of room, and the OOF back giving context and substance to the image. I especially like the subtle colors, with no garish exaggeration.

Thanks Ron. I agree :). It is a specular highlight on the bill. They are both common and tame right where I live. They walk up and down Park BLVD and down by the lake there are sometimes as many as 20. And they have chicks in FRB/MAR/APR. You can get head shots with 70-200 if you want.... Indian Lake Estates, FL. We will be opening a gallery in the house soon so come down! And bring your bathing suit; I am building a pretty good sized lap pool in my backyard :).

Florida Panther has been seen several times here over the past few years....

[Shreeni Rao]

Love everything about it Artie.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Loved this one. I like what your choice of aperture has done...DOF is just right...I like that the body is slightly blurred but the head-to-bill-tip is super sharp.

[Arthur Morris]

Awesome IQ, detail, & color, Artie! Love the eye, what kind of bird? Randy makes some good suggestions.

Sorry I missed the Q. This is the Florida race of Sandhill Crane. The bill is proportionately longer and thinner than the bill of the Bosque birds.

[Josh Clark]

I really like this. Love the look back pose that you captured. The catchlight twinkle in the eye adds something as well. Excellent detail and well exposed.

[Sid Garige]

Exceptional details Artie.

Also thanks for the info on Florida sandhill cranes. I checked few images from Bosque and they have smaller bills.

-sid

[dankearl]

It is kind of a shocking close up and maybe too big for the frame, but a cool photo, nonetheless.
Amazing, the detail you get at 800mm.

[Troy Lim]

Love the sharpness and composition, the way the bill pointed to the LRH corner.

[Mital Patel]

What an intense looking crane. total 3d effect guru ..

[Ron Sprunger]

Dan, you missed the 1.4 -- he was shooting 1100mm+.

Artie, I'd love to come back. The birds are so tame. Fort De Soto was my first bird photography try, and I'm now finding out how hard it is anywhere else. If I come back, I'll try to re-shoot all the species I got in April, but using the lessons I've learned on this forum.

[arash_hazeghi]

great close up details, love that shiny bill.

[Mark Itol]

Gorgeous portrait, Artie. Excellent DOF control.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I really like the composition and feel the head is just where I'd want it Art. . Nice cleanup on the bill and super sharp too.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Arthur, very nice capture! Love the pose.