Purple moorhen headshot | First post here :)

[Hayath Mohammed]

Hello,
Been a lurker around here for sometime. Thought I'd kick it off with a post

Got this co-operative purple moorhen/swamphen in the morning light.



Specs:
Canon 450D, Sigma 150-500 OS
ISO 400, f8, 1/640, -2/3 EV

Slightly cropped to remove clutter, USM, contrast and saturation adjustments done.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Cheers,
Hayath

[Don Railton]

Hello Hayath

Firstly welcome aboard... A colourful Moorehen portrait with a nicely blured background makes for a very nice image. It looks sharp at the eye but for reasons I am not sure about it looks overly sharp at the lower neck region. Have you specifically sharpened this area more? The beak and eye look fine. It maybe just the light angle but the white streaks in this area subtract somewhat from the moorehens brilliant colours...

thanks for showing

Don

[Ian Cassell]

Hayath, congratulations on taking the (somewhat intimidating) leap and posting! Your First post is a nice portrait of a colorful bird. I'm not sure it is a matter of oversharpening on the neck, but rather differential lighting. Toning that down would re-focus the viewer on the face.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Hayath,

Greetings. Thanks for posting this fine portrait. The contrasting colors are great. Agree that backing off the sharpening a bit would be preferable. I would like to see more from you...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Hayath,

Welcome aboard glad you posted this fine image. It is a well framed portrait with a complementary background. I like the picture just curious what was the point of focus (neck, head etc). How much did you move the saturation dial as well. I notice you used USM and assume it was applied after sizing.

Thanks for sharing, you have a good eye this is a beautiful shot. Some might like a cleaner beak but this is fine with me.

[Hayath Mohammed]

Hello Hayath

Firstly welcome aboard... A colourful Moorehen portrait with a nicely blured background makes for a very nice image. It looks sharp at the eye but for reasons I am not sure about it looks overly sharp at the lower neck region. Have you specifically sharpened this area more? The beak and eye look fine. It maybe just the light angle but the white streaks in this area subtract somewhat from the moorehens brilliant colours...

thanks for showing

Don

Thank you Don for the welcome :)

Hayath, congratulations on taking the (somewhat intimidating) leap and posting! Your First post is a nice portrait of a colorful bird. I'm not sure it is a matter of oversharpening on the neck, but rather differential lighting. Toning that down would re-focus the viewer on the face.

Thank you Ian! Yes as you said that first post was intimidating, posting something up for sharing in this elite forum.

Hayath,

Greetings. Thanks for posting this fine portrait. The contrasting colors are great. Agree that backing off the sharpening a bit would be preferable. I would like to see more from you...

Cheers,

-Michael-

Thank you Michael!

Hayath,

Welcome aboard glad you posted this fine image. It is a well framed portrait with a complementary background. I like the picture just curious what was the point of focus (neck, head etc). How much did you move the saturation dial as well. I notice you used USM and assume it was applied after sizing.

Thanks for sharing, you have a good eye this is a beautiful shot. Some might like a cleaner beak but this is fine with me.

Thank you Jeff! I like keeping the bird and any behavioral left-overs intact :)
Saturation was +20 and would've been pushed a little more during highlight recovery using the Shadow/Highlights tool, and yes the USM was applied after resizing to 800px.

All,
Now that you helped me review this, yes the neck region looks very oversharpened. Will re-process this and post up for a review :)

Appreciate your time and inputs!

Cheers,
Hayath

[Hayath Mohammed]

Hello,
Here's a try at re-processing the image again, hoping have done justice enough :)



Thoughts?

Cheers,
Hayath

[Don Railton]

You have certainly made an improvement here Hayath, but I think some of the effect maybe lighting also as Ian has suggested. Could try selecting that area and work on the highlights....

DON

[Brendan Dozier]

Awesome looking Portrait, Hayath, very interesting looking bird, great color, details. Nice job on repost!

[Hayath Mohammed]

Thank you Don and Brendan :)

Will try working on those highlight regions on the neck and see if I can better this

Cheers,
Hayath