Carolina Wren

[David Kenny]

I have been trying to get a decent photo of one of these wrens since last year. This photo of the Carolina wren was taken from a blind in my backyard in a light rain using the canon 7d and the 100-400mm on a tripod with a ball head. A feeder was used. Minor sharpening and minor exposure adjustment in LR

ISO 400

F 5.6

@320mm

1/180

White Balance was set to day light.

Be gentle this is my first photo posted here.

[Diane Miller]

Hi David, and welcome!

The light is wonderful and you got clean whites and great detail in the dark eye! I don't know the bird's color but wonder if the color balance is leaning toward magenta.

It looks like you got the focus right on the beak. There is sufficient DOF that the rest of the bird is reasonably detailed, but focusing just a bit farther back, maybe just behind the eye, might have given you a little better center of the focus plane, moving it back just a hair. That might have kept the beak sharp and given you a little more sharpness on the body. There are so many factors that can give just a slight softening, and you can't really do much about them after the fact if they are in the original file when viewed at 100% (1:1). If the light permits, a faster SS and smaller aperture usually help, but it's a frustrating trade-off with quality loss as the ISO goes higher.

My eye goes to the area near the top of the image where the BG changes tone -- I think the image could be cropped to just below that, but if you want the extra room on top, the line could be softened with some cloning. But cloning in a featureless area can be tricky -- you don't want to smooth out the ambient noise.

All in all, a commendable first post. Keep 'em coming!

[David Kenny]

Thanks Diane,

I noticed the background too. I think it was a fallen tree on the hill side. I may try shooting at F8 next time on this perch to get a greater depth of field on the bird. I believe the wren is a rust color but I have trouble seeing certain colors. Do you think moving it toward a cloudy white balance would get rid of the magenta color you are seeing?

-Dave

[Diane Miller]

I almost universally despise the canned WB presets. Sometimes Auto can be a good comparison to what the camera did, or at least give you an idea which way to go. But the magenta cast is best dealt with by the Tint slider in LR, balanced by the Temp slider. If there is a part of the image that should be neutral gray, using the eyedropper can work, but it's often very tricky getting it on just the right spot. Any noise can throw it off. The handy little set of squares that comes with it (forget what it's called) really helps hitting the right spot.

The best thing to rely on is a well-calibrated and profiled monitor and a lot of experience.

Here's a quick version -- just used the neutral eyedropper in a PS curves layer, on the area just above the neck, because I'm too lazy to pull a JPEG back into LR. :S3:

But of course the BG probably isn't really neutral. The perch might be a better choice. Just to give you another idea...

[David Kenny]

Diane,

The crop defintely helps to get rid of that major distraction. My knowledge in post processing is pretty basic. I will have to try playing around more in LR. Hopefully in the future I will get a better monitor.

Thanks,

- Dave

[Sandy Witvoet]

Really like Diane's RP....color and comp do help..... Sweet bird and capture, David!

[Luis Patacao]

Hi David, i totally agree with Diane and have nothing more useful to add but to say nice capture and soft BG.

[Diane Miller]

Diane,

The crop defintely helps to get rid of that major distraction. My knowledge in post processing is pretty basic. I will have to try playing around more in LR. Hopefully in the future I will get a better monitor.

Thanks,

- Dave


Your monitor may not be at fault, it may just be a color perception thing of the sort that takes experience. I see magenta casts here frequently, and they rarely occur in natural light except in clouds. Clicking around with the white balance eyedropper in RAW or the gray eyedropper in Curves or painting a gray stripe on a new layer will give you some perspective on where an image might be corrected. But it usually won't nail anything down -- just give some perspective. The more subtly colored subjects can be the hardest to get right.

But a properly calibrated and profiled monitor is important.

[Randall Farhy]

Hi David, nice capture of a Wren with an uncluttered background. I too have found them difficult to capture in a pleasant setting/pose. The adjusted w/b and crop have improved upon the final image. How much of the original image is cropped out? I'm only asking because I feel the image would balance better with the subject a little higher and to the right with some room to the bottom and left of the frame. If you are close to the subject and have a large enough file, cropping might work. Solid first post, would like to see more!

[David Kenny]

Randall,

The original post was uncropped. I will play around with your recommendations about the cropping and see how it looks. I did like to proecessing and cropping that Diane did to the photo.

- Dave