I went out with a group of my wife’ and some of her friends to a local park to feed the birds. There are of course some resident sandhill cranes that follow park visitors . Visitors are not allowed to feed the cranes as they can do some damage with that long, pointed bill. I have posted similar images to this one, but I enjoyed the texture of the bill and face of this crane. I was using auto ISO so the image was about a third of a stop over-exposed and I was able to tame down the bright feathers of the cheeks by toning them down. I also enhanced the micro contrast which helped emphasize the details present in the image.
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Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Z9 200-400mm f4 at 220mm (1/2500sec at f6.3, ISO=1000, EC=+0.7) Topaz DeNoise for Sharpening, Microcontrast Enhancement, Crop for comp with standard edits for ETTR (Shadows+, Highlights-).
Jim, I love the close up profile here. Technicals are perfect as always. I have never been this close to a crane so it’s a fascinating view. You composition balances nicely, has incredible detail, and leaves me with a feeling of awe at nature’s intricacies. A really great image.
Yes, a gorgeous close-up portrait! I love the gray BG with a hint of OOF detail and color.
If you have more canvas, I could see a second version with more of the head and beak, but that’s not a criticism of this one, just greed for more from this great opportunity!
If you look up “crane (bird)” in Wikipedia there is a similar portrait of a Sandhill Crane which might qualify as @Diane_Miller 's second version - if only it were of the same quality as this. Interesting comments there on the bare skin around the face which is shown here so well. This is too good to critique; the bird itself could be critiqued for not washing out the stuff above its eye. I guess “Microcontrast Enhancement” is a new function on the Z9?
I’m going to dogpile on the oh this is amazing bandwagon because as crowded as it is, I think I belong there. Jeez you were close. Not sure if this is a greater or lesser sandhill, but we have greaters here and the one time I got accidentally close to a couple (and we all scared each other silly!), the male came almost to my chin! Kind of scary. I’m not sure I’d love them nagging me for food, lol. Really fabulous shot.
Fantastic detail and colors, Jim. I hate being so late to the post as I always feel I am merely echoing other people thoughts. But it is a great shot. Nicely done.
