Woodland Kingfisher

[Arno Ellmer]

A Woodland Kingfisher in courtship display.
Northern Kruger National Park , South Africa
Shot from a car.
The bg is the brown water of the Luvuvhu River.
Manual
f/8
1/250
ISO 400
Flash EC -1.0
500mm + 1.4x
Cropped slightly on all four sides.
Removed a small branch on left

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Arno, all the very best to you, and a prosperous 2012. Killer wing display, and just love the colours of these guys. I like how you have placed the KF in the frame, and that BG is superb. Well captured.

How is this weather we are having - I havent been out for a week due to all the rain.

[gail bisson]

Wow Arno,
The colors of the wings are incredible. Excellent comp and the BG yummy! Did you use flash? I find the eye looks a bit weird but I have never seen one of these up close IRL. I would also open up the blacks as well. Still, a killer shot,
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose and a nice BG, good perch. The eye does look funny to me, looks like you brightened it in post or maybe it's from the flash. I'd try to bump up the contrast a bit and try to extract more details in the blacks.

[Doug Brown]

Love the pose and the placement of the bird on the perch. Open beak is a plus. I'd raise the brightness of the bird and selectively sharpen the head. The eye looks like it's been flashed, but that's an easy fix.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Love those wings and colors. Agree about brightening a bit and the flash look to the eye. Worth working on

[Bill Dix]

Spectacular bird, well captured in his display mode. Good comments above.

[Brendan Dozier]

Amazing looking bird, great bold colors, and nice wing display, Arno. Good suggestions above to make it even stronger.

[Daniel Cadieux]

That is definitely "steel-eye" cased by flas and is an easy fix...just select the pupil, go to Hue/saturation and reduce the lightness until almost all black (sometimes too black is not best, and make sure to leave the catchlight!). Neat pose, and wondeful colours to the plumage!! I can only imagine had it turned its head a few degrees more towards you....

[dankearl]

The color is awesome, a nice perch and stance also.
The eye doesn't bother me.

[Ofer Levy]

Bird looks fantastic with the beautiful display , sharpness, detail and colours. BG is also lovely. Agree with the comments re the eye and brightness. I am not crazy about the composition.

[Doug Brown]

What do you think of this version? Some eye work, shadows and highlights, overall image brightness increased, and some additional sharpening.

[Sandesh R.Dhareshwar]

Brilliant image I love Doug's version which has bought up details as required

[Lorant Voros]

I like the repost. Beautiful bird, nice BG and great pose. Wish for a little better head angle and the perch to be parallel to the sensor on the left end too. Great work.

Lorant

[RakeshDhareshwar]

Awesome repost by Doug . But I must congratulate on an awesome original frame !! Lovely bird , great pose and a stunner BG !!!

[Arno Ellmer]

Thank you all for the very constructive and positive comments !
Doug, thank you for reworking the image! It is a massive improvement. Could you please let me know what your procedure was in reworking the steel eye.
Daniel, I have taken note of your very helpful comments re the eye. Thank you ! Will certainly try it out !

[Arno Ellmer]

What do you think of this version? Some eye work, shadows and highlights, overall image brightness increased, and some additional sharpening.

Thank you ,Doug ! What an improvement ! PLease let me know how you fixed the eye , if you don't mind .

[Arno Ellmer]

What do you think of this version? Some eye work, shadows and highlights, overall image brightness increased, and some additional sharpening.

Thank you ,Doug .What an improvement ! PLease let me know how you fixed the eye , if you don't mind .

[Tom Rambaut]

I like Doug's repost - I was unaware of this species or at least what an interesting colour it is. Look forward to more images of this species.

[Doug Brown]

Doug, thank you for reworking the image! It is a massive improvement. Could you please let me know what your procedure was in reworking the steel eye.

Hi Arno. I used the technique that Daniel suggested. The first step is to select the pupil. Then create a hue/saturation adjustment layer and decrease the lightness until you achieve the desired effect. In this case I went to -66. Then I used a white brush at 100% opacity on the adjustment layer mask to reveal the catchlight. Glad you like the repost!

[Geir Jensen]

Repost is a killer

[Arno Ellmer]

Hi Arno. I used the technique that Daniel suggested. The first step is to select the pupil. Then create a hue/saturation adjustment layer and decrease the lightness until you achieve the desired effect. In this case I went to -66. Then I used a white brush at 100% opacity on the adjustment layer mask to reveal the catchlight. Glad you like the repost!

Thank you Doug , I will try it out .Sincerely appreciated !

[Ofer Levy]

Doug's repost is fantastic! Here is a repost with what looks to me as a more balanced composition which puts this image over the top.

[Arno Ellmer]

Doug's repost is fantastic! Here is a repost with what looks to me as a more balanced composition which puts this image over the top.

Really great pp work Ofer , thank you , what did you exactly do ?

[Doug Brown]

Looks like he cropped off the bottom and top of my repost Arno.

[Ofer Levy]

Looks like he cropped off the bottom and top of my repost Arno.

Not quite... Cropped off the top and LEFT and added some canvas to the RIGHT.