b/w Johnny Rook

[John Chardine]

This is a "Johnny Rook" AKA Striated Caracara from Carcass Island, West Falklands. They are amazing raptors- inquisitive, tame and very clever.

They are beautiful in colour but I'm having fun with a demo version of NIK Color Efex and thought I would try my hand at a black and white conversion using it instead of my normal Topaz. In NIK I ran Details enhancer and over top of that ran a black and white conversion using the Tonal enhancer preset. I didn't play with any of the sliders, just took what it gave me. In Ps I cropped to a tight portrait, ran Curves used the Linear contrast preset.

Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Lens: EF70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM, @ 300 mm
Program: Aperture Priority
ISO 800, 1/250s, f/7.1
Exp. comp.: 0.0
Flash: no flash

[Kerry Perkins]

John, this looks great and it's nice to see you posting in OOTB! I love the processing and tight crop, really makes a striking image. I would suggest a bit of noise reduction on the background.

[John Chardine]

Thanks Kerry- yes I see the noise there now. I selectively sharpened only the face of the bird so I guess it was there to begin with. I am learning that many of these plug-in effects accentuate any noise that it there.

[Indranil Sircar]

John, this is excellent! I love the tilted head pose and certainly detail enhancer brought out the features well. B&W with the square framing is just perfect. I would love to see the color version... hopefully I will have the opportunity to see them in October/November in Falklands!

[John Chardine]

Thanks Indranil! So you will be there next Oct/Nov 2012. So will I! PM me on how you are getting there and when.

You will see this amazing bird so long as you get to some of the outer islands, which I am sure you will.

[Indranil Sircar]

It's part of the trip to South Georgia. We will be on three islands - Sea Lion, Steeple Jason and Carcass. The dates are November 6-8, 2012. I will PM you the itinerary once I have the final dates.

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi John;

Great shot. Love the way you caught that pensive look. The B&W is very striking.

Rergards

Gus

[Maureen Allen]

Beautiful bird and a lovely pose. I like the B&W conversion very much.

[Dennis Bishop]

This is a great image. I like the tight crop, the accentuated detail, that it's b&w, the pose, and that incredible eye. Nice work.

[John Chardine]

Thanks to all. Here's a de-noised version (Topaz) done on the BG. It was a "no-brainer" as young people seem to say with some frequency. The outer edge of the bird was out of the DoF anyway so it didn't matter if the NR affected this outer edge and therefore I didn't need to be that careful about the selection.

[Jay Sheinfield]

John, Killer eye! Love the head tilt and the Black and White.................nice job!

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful pose and comp, John! Love the eye, porcupine like texture to feathers, and the B&W conversion works very well. Repost even better. Well done!

[denise ippolito]

John, Wonderful pose and sharp eye. I like the B&W. Nice repost.

[John Chardine]

Thanks everyone for all the great comments.

The eyes of these birds are indeed amazing. I will look for a good one and post, maybe in Macro

[Paul Lagasi]

Lovely work John, the eye is a killer, its cool how our eye sort of follows the feathers in a coil pattern clockwise, finishing at the bill..hope you know what I mean...very nice.
Minimal effects yet, OOTB thinking. Are you sure you work for the government...lol

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi John, love the B&W here and the pose is beautiful with a razor sharp eye. Nicely done!