Picture Perfect & repost

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
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Picture Perfect
Picture Perfect1223×1529 591 KB

This Turkey Vulture was one of about 50 sunning themselves and preening on the rocks. They do this in the morning to get ready for their day and at night before going to bed in the nearby trees. It’s because they are very clean birds. I got to camp right near here so was able to watch them at both times and see some of them roosting in the trees!

Specific Feedback Requested

I had to get this shot from above. This a dam wall covered with big rocks. I tried to make it look like I was close to the same level by hanging over the guardrail. Does it look like that?
Does exposure look good?
Anything else?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400
ISO 800
300mm
f/6.3
1/1000
Cropped

naturenessie
1 Like
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Hi, Vanessa. Really nice job capturing this vulture. Exposure looks good and a nice head turn. His head looks just a bit soft to me, like maybe you weren’t focusing there? Still, a good shot.

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Yeah, I can see that now that you mention it!

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Turkey vultures are photogenic in their own unique way. Your comp looks OK and yes the softness is slight, but noticeable. If the vulture was slightly closer, more details are always possible to capture. With practice, I have seen some amazing details captured after a sizable crop. Well done…Jim

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A very nice photo Vanessa. I like the diagonal pose of the vulture which seem to match the slope of the rocks. I am not sure how much room you have but i might have the vulture just a bit closer to top left corner. I am not sure how to do that. Take off top left or add to bottom right but I don’t think it would be much. Nice colors on the bird and looks well exposed. It sounds like it was a tricky shot.

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@David_Leroy @terryb @Jim_Zablotny
Hi David! Thanks for the feedback! Also, thanks Terry and Jim for seeing the softness in the head. I’m reposting with David’s crop idea which I really like! Also when I went into the raw I sharpened the photo a bit, might’ve improved the head a bit. I forgot about that adjustment in pp, which @Shirley_Freeman had told me that is necessary when shooting in raw! I never knew that before! Let me know if it’s improved both crop and quality wise. Thanks!

image
image2181×2724 1.51 MB

3 Likes
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I played with it a bit in PSE 2020 and came up with this:

3D351706-8F8B-4D94-891B-2CEC0FADB32B-1
3D351706-8F8B-4D94-891B-2CEC0FADB32B-11201×1500 823 KB

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Thanks! That’s nice, did you bring up the exposure a bit? The head and feathers seem to stand out more, just a little brighter.

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No, I just applied a soft light High Pass filter to it. That sometimes brings the exposure up slightly as it rearranges pixels to sharpen the image.

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@terryb Oh, I don’t think I have anything like that.

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Not unless you have Photoshop.

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@terryb yeah, I figured as much, but I think I might still be able to achieve that with what I do have!

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A very nice pose and setting, Vanessa. The light on the Vulture looks very good. I really like your recropped composition.

1 Like