Hoppy

[ucci]

Once in a while we get to see an amputee here at our place, like poor old hoppy here. Strangely enough they seem to cope very well.
Thanks for viewing and for any comments posted.

[pnodrog]

A bird with attitude! Is the texture/grain from noise? I find it puzzling rather than worrying but it may be better if it was reduced.

[HiImTom]

Great story, thanks for sharing. I like the contrast on his chest and face. The only thing I would have done differently if it was "mine", would be to crop a bit more so the subject was a little more off center. (Please take my critique with a grain of salt, I really know nothing) Great moment captured!

[Bobobird]

Great looking bird despite the 1 leg. Nice shot too. I am fine with the "grain" if that is what you are trying to accomplish.

Why did you go b/w on this one?

[ucci]

Thank you for your feedback and helpful comments. I was looking for a stark, strong rather than a 'soft' effect and probably over did the sharpening a tad. As for more more cropping? I tried that and was unhappy with the result. I preferred to have some 'air space' around the bird. I guess one thing I should have done is to have cloned out the lighter background streak across the frame just above the top of the seat on which it is perched.
Old ucci

[Donald]

I think it's just fine as it is. Leave it.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ken,

I hope you don't mind, I "had a go" - the crop may not be to your liking.



Noise reduce (Neat Image)
Crop
Image size 1064 > 700px height
UnSharp Mask (90% 0.3px 2 threshold)
Levels dialog to raise Black point to 5 (darkening image slightly)

I'll take it down if you don't like it, just let me know.

To be honest, I see so many birds standing on one leg (by choice), I didn't think anything of it until I read the story.

HTH,

[ucci]

No Dave
Please leave it. As I understand it one of the basic tenets of this site is to learn and explore so that we can grow and develop as photographers. And what has happened here with your post is one of the best way for this sort of information transfer to happen whereby people can actually get to see visual examples of various approaches and draw their own conclusions.
Your sharpening has certainly improved the detail, especially at the back of the head white feathers and the leg and claws. Personally I would prefer less cropping on the RHS as I wanted to give some concept of space around the bird as part of its environment even though it transgresses the thirds yardstick. I prefer to think of it in these terms rather than as a hard and fast rule. To me the cropped version looks a bit unbalanced and too tight. But this is just my opinion with which many may disagree. And that is how we progress; through controversy and exchange of ideas.
Thank you for your input
Ken

[jamn4ex]

The grainyness adds to the atmosphere, I like the feel of this pic. I also like both crops, I probably would have stuck with original. Keep hopping. hoppy!