Male Blackbird

[Ivan Ellison]

Taken on 1st Feb this year. I was struck by how orange his beak was- they are normally yellow.
Lightened slightly, reduced blacks and sharpened in ACR, slight noise reduction to BG.
Darkened highlights on perch and reduced shadow , unsharp mask after resizing in PSE 10.
Canon 1DmkIV, Canon 500 f4 is.
1/640, f5, ISO 640.

[Richard Mc Donald]

You've done well on the exposure for this one Ivan with some nice detail showing on the Blackbird. Although not a big fan of tight crops I think this one works well as the perch seams to justify it.

Richard

[Bill Dix]

Nice detail in the blacks, and I like the eye. My only problem with the perch is that it obscures the tail.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Ivan I think the blackbird is superb, sorry to say not crazy about the perch, if this is a set up suggest get a new perch say some hawthorn or even blackberry - often covered with lichen this time of year,

[Melissa Groo]

Agreed on the perch, but I do like your blackbird very much. Wonderful sharpness, and detail in those blacks. Great BG too. I think I see a slight sharpening halo around the bird.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Ivan, well exposed on this fellow and I like the look back pose. We cant control where they perch, so we have to take what we can. When I opened this, I could see a slight magenta cast, so I reduced that in my repost. I could be totally wrong, so tell me so. :w3

[Satish Ranadive]

Ivan,
Magnificent image.Love the beautiful details in blacks,bill and eye color and above all his pose.Lovely BG too.

Regards,
Satish.

[christopher galeski]

nice imageIvan,not keen on the perch,but blackbird nice and sharp,and nice BG and pose,Stuart repost as got rid of the magenta cast.thanks.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Well exposed, and nice details in those blacks. Yes, perch is not ideal...some man-made perches and fence posts do become quite beautiful when older and weathered, those are the ones I concentrate on in agricultural areas. The vertical crop works well, and I love the nice green BG (but you could smooth out the half-circle at right edge).

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. I like the pose, exposed very well, nice background, and great details.
Well done.

[Nico Steenberg]

Well exposed detail and eye contact. Well done

[Ivan Ellison]

thanks to Stuart for pointing out the magenta cast and correcting it. i have not yet got the eye for spotting the fine detail such as colour casts unlesss they are very obvious. hope one day to get it all right- but there again I suppose that day will never come, hence the reason we keep going out there time and time again.