Laughing Kookaburra

[Colin Driscoll]

• Canon EOS R5
• EF600mm f/4L IS III USM +1.4x III
• ƒ/8
• 840mm
• 1/1600s
• ISO 1600
• Colin Driscoll
• Tue, 04 March 2025 5:36 PM
• Colin Driscoll
• Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 17.2 (Windows)

Continuing with in-your-face portraits...
Better late afternoon light for this Kookaburra.
ACR PS2025 near full frame, added a bit of canvas on the left.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Colin, judging by the title I was expecting far more of a tighter image, building on that in-your-face title.

Is f/8 shooting wide open, if so I might go to f/9 with that rig/set up, pushing the ISO but also bumping up your SS.

Overall it's bit dark, probably by about a stop and you are just on the cusp of letting the light 'scalp & form' the subject. Both Contrast & the Blacks are dominating things, so the detail you captured isn't being portrayed as well as it could be. You really want to maximise that histogram to gain as much data and if you have to darken the image so be it, but probably only by a third of a stop which is nothing.You also want to get as much separation between the two, so it pops.

I think if you were to revisit the file you could do a lot more with it, just with some simple tweaks. Also be careful with too low a SS, you want to avoid Pixelshift.

TFS
Steve

 

[Colin Driscoll]

Steve, f5.6 is wide open. Half a stop more exposure and the whites on the throat start to block. No pixel shift across any of the frames.

 

[Steve Kaluski]

Sorry Colin wasn’t thinking, f/4 with 1.4x f/5.6 so f/8 good, nice sweet spot for this. Pixel shift you just need a fraction of movement so I would just up you SS as you have plenty of ISO.

 

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hey Colin ...
nicely captured side portrait of this cool Bird , love them , so funny when they call !!!!!
Apart from being maybe a touch too dark and blacks/ shadows too dense ... I like the overall shot !
Does look better than previous image in terms of BG and funky softness .... think the BG is quite nice making the subject pop .

TFS Andreas