Blackburnian Warbler

[Marvin Pfeiffer]

I captured this one on Monday at Port Aransas, TX.

1DMkIII, 500 F4 IS, 1.4 TC, ISO 640, 1/640 sec at f 7.1, EV +1/3, fill flash at -3

Comments are welcome. Thanks!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Great little bird! There are a couple of distracting smudges in the background and the whites/lights seem a little over the top, but overall it has great appeal and those are minor nits easily fixed!

[Robert Amoruso]

Marvin,

Nice looking bird and good positioning on the perch and in the frame. The whites look hot/blown. The BG looks OK to me and though bright overall works OK as there are no singularly overpowering spots.

The branches coming out of the back could be cloned out if you so desired. I might try desaturating the yellow/orange in the breast just a bit to bring out more details.

[Gus Cobos]

Hey Marvin,
Like your composition and capture with nice vibrant colors on your subject...:)

[Doug Brown]

Lovely portrait Marvin. Agree with Robert's excellent critique.

[Alfred Forns]

Agree with Robert !!! The big one is the one branch sticking out of the head !!! Excellent pose !!!

[Marvin Pfeiffer]

Thanks for the critiques. I'll work on removing the branch. Should I try to do so all the way from the left side of the frame (and through the foilage) or just from the top of the birds head?

Also, what might be the best way to tone down the whites. I imagine that it's just the wing that needs the work. Is that correct? I shot the file in RAW, converted it in ACR (CS3) and there weren't any blown out areas in the white that I could see either there or when I worked the file in CS3. I took Recovery all the way to 70 in ACR just to make sure and try to tone down those whites.

Should I go back to ACR and try to do more or just work on it in CS3? If the latter, I think I can select the area and go to curves and drag down the highlight maybe or go to selective color and add black to the whites. Either might work but does anyone have any other suggestions.

Thanks for the help!

Marvin

[Marvin Pfeiffer]

Sorry about that. I pretty much had a redundant post and deleted it.

[Glenda Simmons]

Wow, I just love the bird! Great pose and colors.