Woodchat shrike

[shane shacaluga]

This morning was quite overcast and was not sure whether it would be worth going out, but luckily i managed to find this nice Woodchat shrike perched on a thorn bush.

Was trying to quickly figure out how to set the camera as it has whites and black upon a green background in darkish conditions.

I got 2 shots in, one shot, saw some blinkies, adjusted and shot again before it flew off

Still got a small blinkie on the shoulder but i think it turned out ok

Nikon D7000
300f4 + 1.4x TCII (420mm)
f6,3
1/1250
iso 800
Evaluative metering at -1/3
Centre point AF using back focus button
Handheld

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8263/8606699782_b53b7f711f_b.jpg

Separating the background was a nightmare and quite time consuming but managed to do this for some NR
Toned down bright white shoulder and neck area and brought down the yellow saturation of the flower

Sharpened after resize

All comments are welcome

[Grace Scalzo]

Sweet liitle bird and a nice setting. I wish for a better image quality as I don't see great detail in the bird. He's quite large in the frame and I might consider a looser composition, which would help the IQ I would think.

[shane shacaluga]

I did have to crop a bit so will try less crop. Thanks for commenting

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely bird, pose and composition. I think the exposure looks quite good. Agree with Grace that the image quality is lacking and a looser crop would help. Did you apply any noise reduction (NR) to this image?

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks Marina

i did apply a very small amount of NR to the image. I guess that a slight overcrop made the image appear a bit noisy/grainy but i may be wrong.


Have tried a looser crop and it does look a bit better overall.

Will try and get even closer to the bird next time

thanks for your comments