African Giant Kingfisher

[Carl Walker]

Bean bag out vehicle window
Canon 1D MK IV, 300 f2.8 + 2 X extender MK III - ISO 800 - 1/3200 sec - f8
LR5 basics
PSE 9 - LM, NR - some light cloning on BG

C & C welcome. Thanks

[Martin Dunn]

Carl, I think that is a great shot of a beautiful bird.
Pose and perch work extremely well for me and I like the space on the right hand side.
Plumage looks good to me with plenty of detail.

[Andre Pretorius]

Nice one Carl! Like the POV, bird really sharp. Did you do NR on perch- looks a bit to smooth?! Bit of artifacts on back rock sloping down, run blur tool @ 80%. Stunning capture and PS! Good choice of comp.

[Marina Scarr]

The bird has a super pose and colors and wonderful details and sharpness. I also like his perch and how he fills the frame. The vegetation to the right is a bit distracting. You may wish to consider a vertical comp here.

[Carl Walker]

Thanks Martin, Andre and Marina. Andre if you mean the white specks they are natural.

[Satish Ranadive]

Excellent image. Wonderful colors , nice sharpness, beautiful pose with nice HA.
Would go for vertical if possible.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose, sharp details and good light. good HA. BG is a bit distracting

[Tony Whitehead]

Beautiful female GK, Carl. I love the plumage details and texture. With this type of background that looks a little distracting despite being OOF, I often use Nik ColorEfex Tonal Contrast filter to apply negative tonal contrast (and sometimes a little desaturation, and sometime darkening this layer slightly with levels) which I then mask to the BG. Here is a version with negative tonal contrast , a touch of desaturation and slight darkening to the BG - if you layer it with your original and then flick between the two you can get an idea of the effect.
http://www.tonywhitehead.com/wildlight/2012/12/nik-colorefex-pro-4-tonal-contrast-to-smooth-backgrounds/