Northern Parula

[Jon Swanson]

I was in Iowa photographing warblers this spring (sounds funny but there are some very good places there!) and had this Parula cooperate. Not a setup....just where he would go before heading up to his mate on the nest. D3s 600VR + 1.4TC ISO1000 f11 1/200th ff. I toned the perch down a bit from the flash.


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[Bill Dix]

These are gorgeous birds and you've captured him very handsomely. Perfect pose, great colors, and very sharp. Good call on the aperture.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, bird, sharpness, clean BG and composition. Excellent image Jon.

[Tim King]

A very fine detailed photo, Jon.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi John and welcome.

Love the image, the bird, the head angle, and the BKGR. But the bird is definitely over-sharpened by a considerable amount.

When are you sharpening?

[Arthur Morris]

I was viewing at 110%. Looks better at 100% but still over-sharpened. But not by as much as I thought :e3.

[Amol Khedgikar]

Really beautiful bird. well captured. The plumage, great colors are perfectly displayed. the head turn is perfect as well. Sharpening looks OK to me. Great flash work. Would you care to share flash settings?

The BG is so nice and clean.

The perch behind the bird oof even at F11? were you too close?

[Karl Egressy]

This is the perfect pose for the bird. It shows off its noce colouration and texture of the back.
The perch is simple but nicely angled. Background is very nice.
I'm not sure about the placing of the bird. It seems to be a bit centered, the head that is.
All in all it is a great picture of this beauty Warbler species, Jon.

[Jon Swanson]

Hi Artie. I sharpen after resizing. I have been switching back and forth from USM and Smart Sharpen since CS6 came out. I have a heck of a time getting the sharpening I am/was used to. So I am still playing with it. When sharpening I looked at it a couple times and thought it was perhaps a little bit oversharpened. The wing coverts have that funky look even when unsharpened in the RAW capture which was a little confusing at first.

[Jon Swanson]

I was very close to minimum distance for the lens as this fellow is tiny and I was trying to get as close to full frame as I could get with this guy. I have shots of him totally parallel and sharp but I liked the color on the back that we often don't see when they are in the top of a tree. Good observation Amol :)

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Jon, Try this: after resizing use Unsharp Mask at 125/0.3/0. Since I switched to that I have not a single over-sharpening/halo complaint. And the images look great even though I sharpen the whole image. That just for JPEGs.

[Arthur Morris]

I'm not sure about the placing of the bird. It seems to be a bit centered, the head that is. All in all it is a great picture of this beauty Warbler species, Jon.

Karl, For me this composition is pretty much perfect with about four times as much room in front of the bird as behind. Sometimes the bird's head winds up in or near the middle but that never bothers me....

[Shawn Zierman]

This is really really nice Jon. The angle of view we have on the bird is fantastic and I am also enjoying that bit of a tail spread.
Very impressive result considering not a set up too. That said, just a little background variation would have been nice here.
Any exposures without the 1.4 on? Good call on toning down the perch.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot.
Excellent pose, great perch, wonderful background, and terrific comp.
Well done.

[Jon Swanson]

This is really really nice Jon. The angle of view we have on the bird is fantastic and I am also enjoying that bit of a tail spread.
Very impressive result considering not a set up too. That said, just a little background variation would have been nice here.
Any exposures without the 1.4 on? Good call on toning down the perch.

Hi Shawn,

I didn't take any without the 1.4 because a full frame and camera and a tiny bird would mean too much cropping for me. The 1.4 rarely comes off the lens when shooting the small stuff. And the BG is out of my control as it is a forest about 200 yards away.

[Shawn Zierman]

Yeah, your logic sounds pretty solid. I guess my comment was sort of based off the info in the OP. It sounded
like the bird was coming to the same perch repeatedly, possibly giving the opportunity to explore different background
options, by either adjusting your focal length or slightly shifting your shooting perspective...but disregard, your explanation
makes perfect sense.