Fighting Downies

[Richard Stern]

I wasn't going to post this, as the background was pretty fussy and I wasn't sure of the iq, , but after seeing Bill Dix's recent lovely picture of his Hairy Woody family, I decided I would give it a try - I worked on the background, which I hope is now acceptable, and I thought this image, taken in early May in my usual local warbler woods, would be OK to post here. It's 2 male Downy Woodpeckers having a scrap over a nearby female for her attentions.

D7000, 300 f/4 AF-S, 1.7TC, hand-held, manual exp., pattern metering, -o.33EV, 1/1600, f7.1, ISO auto at 3200.

Processed in LR and PS Elements with selective curves, sharpening, nr, bg blurring etc.

Thanks for looking.

Richard

[dankearl]

I am not sure what the blur is by the feet and across the right side, did you remove a branch?
Superb action captured.
A lot of BG noise, this is good enough, I would try to reprocess, and bring this up a notch.
iso3200 is a lot for the D7000, but with fussy enough NR, you could improve this I think.

[Jim Thomas]

Very cool moment to capture and I lke the colors and composition. Maybe just more NR on BG and cloning out the oof thingy at center of tree.

Jim

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent action image, Richard. As it was indicated you can improve the BG and remove some OOF spots.

[Richard Stern]

Thank you for your replies. Here is a repost with your suggestions. I agree with them, and just hadn't noticed the things you both mentioned. Hope this is better.

Richard

[Jim Thomas]

Lovely repost.

Jim

[Bill Dix]

You've captured a terrific moment here, with great wing spreads. I can see how this was a difficult bg. The exposure and detail on the birds is very nice, and the repost addresses the noted issues. The only other nitpick I might add is the bright edging on the right bird, and the tail of the left one, caused by layering the birds and making changes to the bg. Can be corrected. I would be very pleased to have seen and captured this moment.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent interaction you got here! The BG looks good to me, especially after the NR applied on the repost. Details look good too, and a very nice composition. You forgot some areas between the primaries of the right bird, and the contour of that particular individual looks better in the OP.

[Chris Kotze]

Super action captured, the repost looks better ditto, Daniel