Pied Kingfisher

[Bhargava Srivari]

f8, 1/640sec, EV 0, ISO 320, 400mm, eval metering, cropped
canon 60D, canon 100-400 L IS USM
Shot at lotus pond, hyderabad. A couple of friends here asked for the workflow I follow for editing the images, but I was a little lazy to write it up:sleep:

Let me know if the same problems exist for this image as well, I'll put up the workflow:)

[Dr. Kalpamoi Kakati]

While processing in multiple layers,you need to adjust the edges of the selections carefully.The bird appears to be pasted to the background.Too much contrast stretching has caused the whites to blow out in the neck region. It is always challenging to photograph a pied subject .Nevertheless you have given a good try.Wish the bird was closer to you :).TFS

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice perch and eye contact. You can try to recover the whites a bit in the neck area. Wish it was a bit closer so you could have composed with some less space on the right. Thanks for sharing.

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Agree with the previous comments. Very nice attempt nevertheless. Nice smooth BG (only wish the bright patches weren't there). Nothing technically wrong with the BG here... so it seems to be a problem when the BG is water.
TFS

[Sabyasachi Patra]

... so it seems to be a problem when the BG is water.
TFS

The texture in the water due to the ripples/waves makes it difficult to clone, if not impossible.

I hear some fellows are selling "clean" backgrounds ie. images of only backgrounds so that people can cut and paste the subject on the so called clean backgrounds.

Cameras are now available where one can shoot at 300 fps and one can do the screen grab and it is as good or even better than still images.

Not sure where photography is moving. Or may be we have left photography and moved into digital imaging

[Bhargava Srivari]

Sabyasachi

I must agree with you on the 'clean BG' part. However, I am yet to learn cloning techniques and have never used anything more than a spot healing brush to my images (in which case I make a mention of it) :) Otherwise, curves/levels, exposure, vibrance/hue/saturation, and sharpness/ NR (not often) are the only changes I make.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Good you got a pied KF. R they abundant at Lotus pond ?
TFS
Roopak