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Thread: LAPPET-FACED VULTURE - What you see is what you get

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    Default LAPPET-FACED VULTURE - What you see is what you get

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    This portrait of the 'King of Vultures' was captured at an unidentified carcass in the Masai Mara ,Kenya.
    Shot from a vehicle ,using a bean bag.
    These vultures are the dominant ones at any carcass.They often arrive first and,with their formidable beaks open up the carcass for other species to follow.
    They then normally wait until most action is over and then tackle skin ,tendons and ligaments , elements which others species of vultures are not equipped to handle.

    Canon Mk IV
    500mm
    f/7.1
    1/3200
    ISO 800
    EC + 1/3

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    Erno, nice details and textures. liked the clean BG as well. A little more dead turn would have been nice but not sure how it would have looked with that much side light. I'd prefer to see a bit more body.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    Bet his mother loved him! Great close up, I would consider taming the highlights on the large folds in his neck and the lores towards the front of the eye, and possibly just lowering highlights in general - just a tad.

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    This is one of the ugliest creatures on the planet. Very good sharpness and detail. Nice BG.

    Jack

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    Hopefully his mother loved him eee gad LOL. I like the portrait and the detail. Is the eye normally that hollow looking and is that the natural catch light?

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    Excellent portrait with nice background.

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    That is pone ugly bird, but a cool photo!
    Dan Kearl

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cheryl Molennor View Post
    Hopefully his mother loved him eee gad LOL. I like the portrait and the detail. Is the eye normally that hollow looking and is that the natural catch light?
    Thanks for your comments, Cheryl .The eye and the catch light are natural and as shot.

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    Woah ! Lovely closeup !! Agree on toning down the highlights a bit , and maybe open up the eye a bit .

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    Beautiful portrait, great details and sharpeness.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Harsh light can be tamed in most cases with good processing.... The image as presented is way too bright and there is lots of clipping. For the repost I ran a 25% Liinear Burn on the face and then applied a gentle reverse S Curve to the whole image. I would advise starting from scratch, converting darker, and taming all the bright areas as above :).
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arno Ellmer View Post
    Thanks for your comments, Cheryl .The eye and the catch light are natural and as shot.
    Thanks Arno

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    gorgeous bird Arno, that eye and the bill are incredible

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arthur Morris View Post
    Harsh light can be tamed in most cases with good processing.... The image as presented is way too bright and there is lots of clipping. For the repost I ran a 25% Liinear Burn on the face and then applied a gentle reverse S Curve to the whole image. I would advise starting from scratch, converting darker, and taming all the bright areas as above :).
    Thank you Artie, for the kind and generous feedback.
    The histogram showed no clipping and I did tone down quite a bit using Niksoft Viveza. Obviously not enough ! Yes, the light was very harsh.
    I am not familiar with the above methods and would be appreciative of the step by step workflow to these.
    Thanks again ,
    Arno

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    Quote Originally Posted by Arno Ellmer View Post
    Thank you Artie, for the kind and generous feedback. The histogram showed no clipping and I did tone down quite a bit using Niksoft Viveza. Obviously not enough ! Yes, the light was very harsh. I am not familiar with the above methods and would be appreciative of the step by step workflow to these. Thanks again, Arno
    You are most welcome. My main point was that if you work right on sun angle, keep the WHITE RGB values under 230, and use a reverse S Curve to decrease the contrast a bit that you can produce rather pleasing images even when they are created in bright sun. Oftentimes when a TIFF file shows no clipping the creation of the (more contrasty) JPEG will introduce clipping. There is lots of clipping in the JPEG posted in Pane 1 and even in my repost. That's why you need to reconvert and start over. Tip: use the Recovery Slider to get all the WHITE RGB values under 230.

    Complete details on all of the above are covered in our Digital Basics File. I included my complete digital workflow and dozens and dozens of Photoshop tips. And the next free update will include lots of tips on NIK's Color Efex Pro 4.
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Thank you sincerely ,Artie , for the help ,guidance and info on this! Much appreciated !

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    You are sincerely welcome. But that I had time to comment on every image on BPN...
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

    BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.

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