European White Stork

[Richard Unsworth]

Hithere a

re lots of storks with young throughout the Alentejo region of Portugal atm .
They are easy to see on their nesting platforms but infinitely more difficult to get close to on the ground.

Pictured here amongst the glorious spring flowers of the region

Sharpened, light NR and curves, add sat +10, and dropped blues from the black on bird

Canon 7D iso 640 eV +1.66 1/400 f5.6

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Richard, you did well to get such a clear shot. I am not too sure about the image processing, for me the colours are a little too saturated - the legs and bill for example look very red indeed. Given that you overexposed the capture I am surprised that the blacks are so dense - maybe you readjusted them in curves? The DOF is a little generous, perhaps you did not use a very long lens or maybe the background flowers were pretty close, there seems to be slight smudge on the base of the neck. I think a few minor tweaks would improve presentation considerably.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Good critique by Johnathan. What was your focal length? the bokeh is not very good is some areas. IQ seems a bit lacking....esp. the face and bill area.

nice head turn, elegant pose and surroundings.

[Robert Holguin]

Real nice shot. I like the surrounding flowers and I also like the pose.
Well done.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice bird and flowers. Sharp. I am confused by that much +EC with a 7D.... Some bill clean-up would improve this. In the same vein, what is the spot on the upper neck?

[Richard Unsworth]

Agree way too much EC, had been shooting sif storks in flight) this one landed and then departed in about 2 seconds, and the rest is history lol, need to reprocess as well as there is a nice frame in there somewhere

Arthur -
Spot on upper kneck is natural but no idea whether its an injury, much or feather color

will post fl when I repost later, I think was maxxed at 400, Jon agree bit too much sat

[Richard Unsworth]

Reposting

Focal L was max @ 400


Whites not clipped in original file

surprised at noise considering OE and ISO

patch tool on beak a little

reduced blue in blacks

sat as per file

I wonder if the neck mark is a stab from youngster?

left the rock :-)

small curves adjust, reduced b&c by -2

[Jonathan Ashton]

Richard I attach another for your consideration, I applied curves to the background, just lowering the central point a little to reduce brightness, I then inverted the selection and applied a little Burn to the white plumage followed by Smart Sharpen 30, 0.2.. I think if you go to the raw file again it would be better than I achieved.

[Richard Unsworth]

Thanks for the input Jon

those changes are very subtle but good suggestions
applied thenm to tiff to give...

[Ofer Levy]

Last repost looks good to me. A lovely shot.

[Arthur Morris]

Arthur - Spot on upper neck is natural but no idea whether its an injury, much or feather color.

Looks as if it might be a tick or an odd feather. Unless all other birds of this species have the same mark I would have no qualms about eliminating it.

Curious: were the whites blown in the original capture? Were you in Av?

[Richard Unsworth]

Thank you Ofer

much appreciated

[Richard Unsworth]

Hi Arthur

mark does not appear in other stork pics I may make it disappear

I was in Av and the whites were clipped a little, 14 on recovery slider eliminated this, I did not use ACR though I tend to use DPP

File Name _MG_5386.CR2
Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Firmware Firmware Version 1.2.5
Shooting Date/Time 5/21/2012 4:13:29 PM
Owner's Name
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/400
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation +1 2/3
ISO Speed 640
Auto ISO Speed OFF
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal Length 400.0mm
Image Size 5184x3456
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
FE lock OFF
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
AF area select mode Spot AF
Picture Style Standard
Sharpness 3
Contrast 0
Saturation 0
Color tone 0
Color Space Adobe RGB
Long exposure noise reduction 0:Off
High ISO speed noise reduction 3:Disable
Highlight tone priority 0:Disable
Auto Lighting Optimizer 3:Disable
Peripheral illumination correction Enable
File Size 26398KB
Dust Delete Data No
Drive Mode High-speed continuous shooting

[Arthur Morris]

Good plan.