1st Lorikeet Photographed

First attempts at birds, first attempts with my new camera and lens

(first telephoto ever, besides my original kit 18-105). Also had my 2

small children with me today, so was quite rushed...

Any pointers are ALWAYS appreciated as I am still learning!

Dear Ellery,

This is beautiful...great use of light on the bird really makes the colors speak. The detail is excellent, framing too. Nice DOF...all lovely!

Tim

@Timothy - thanks!  I cropped to get this composition to be honest...the original in camera I took was not bad, but was more of a portrait orientation and it was less well suited to show off the detail in the feathers and around the eye...

I am drawn to this photograph by the vivid colors. I appreciate that the bird's eye is in sharp focus. This version is cropped -- it would also be interesting to see the original un-cropped version. The colors appear to be highly saturated, but I have never seen a lorikeet. There appears to be some moire pattern in the feathers.

What are your settings -- capture format (raw, jpeg); iso. Any post-processing of interest? My preferrence is realism, so I question the saturation levels. The background is nicely softened, giving the lorikeet good presence in the photograph. Your camera and lens are a winning combination.

The top ten words for unusual colors. I just happened upon this :) --

http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-ten-lists/top-10-words-for-unusual-colors/vermilion.html?&t=1366689329

Very nice detail around the eye, Ellery.  Beautiful colours!

christopher...I will pull up the original RAW, convert to JPEG, and post it here for comparison.....these birds are very colorful....it could be that when I pulled down the levels a tad, the colors saturated a bit much, but I think you will find the original perhaps nearly as saturated....I think you will find these colors close to realistic in fact....

I only in post (I use capture NX2), reduced levels a tad, then cropped, resized, added a touch of USM - probably as I recall 10 intensity, 2 radius...Ive noticed with this lens/camera combo, I need little or no sharpening in some shots - 20-35 with radius of 3-5 was common on my D90

Oh, other change I made was to desaturate the background a tad...I think you will see what I mean in the original.

also, im about to post a wide shot of the "exit" sign and some of these birds on it for comparison as well...look it up in this same folder if you wish...

huh....I guess I did not crop in much....boy that is refreshing...

come to think of it I had debated a crop closer in on the face...but decided against :)