Curve-billed Thrasher

[WillieHall]

Another photo from my recent trip to SE AZ, Curve-billed Thrasher in its normal prickly habitat. I am especially interested in folks reaction to the rear view of this thrasher. It is a jpeg from 7D 100-400L w/ monopod and ISO 800, f/7.1, 1/1250, 20% crop. Slight PP of shadow, contrast and saturation. all c and c eagerly anticipated

[Doug West]

Willie...

Here are the issues I have...

1. Noise - The background especially looks pretty heavy as far as noise goes. If you haven't done it
already, at a minimum, work on reducing the noise on the background.

2. Head Angle - Not much you can do about it, but you'd get thrown into the stockade from the Head
Angle Police :) The pose itself is find, it's just the head angle that kills it.

3. The black spot - That darker spot on the left hand side of the Thrasher, that's kind of distracting.

I think the crop is good and the cactus doesn't overwhelm the size of the bird. I think if you take care
of the noise, that'll improve this image by a lot.

Also, I noticed on one of your other posts, you mentioned about not having the storage/time etc. to
shoot RAW. Just in case you weren't aware, but even if you shoot just RAW, you can still extract the
jpg version from that RAW file. How you do it, depends on the software that you use. I use BreezeBrowswer,
if I wanted to extract the jpg file, I think its shift-ctrl-x.

Just wanted to point that out in case you thought you had to change your settings to shoot RAW & JPG.

Doug

[Carolyn Arnesen]

Hi Willie, I like the comp and its series of curves, the look back and clear yellow eye. The shadow to the left is a bit distracting.
Carolyn

[Iain Barker]

I agree with the comments above. Everything looks in focus though and well exposed.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

Nice one, Willie! The only bit of distraction for me is the amount of noise in the BG. I agree with Doug about RAW. You just put yourself in such a better position to sort out little (& large) issues in PP.

[kevin Hice]

Willie nice pic but agree with most of above Black spot and noise probably the worse and head angle is very important to me also. Really like the green in the background goes along nicely with the cactus.But the big issue is not shooting in raw. I wouldn't even think of it. being new to photography I make so many mistakes. I need every advantage Its so easy for me when i get back from shooting to download to the tv and discard the worse pics.I also liked your post from the other day.

[WillieHall]

thanks ALL for the comments. I get the RAW feedback, I just got Arties DPP pdf and Digital Basics so I need to study, learn and apply. The moment after posting this photo I noticed the distracting dark spot to the left of the bird, should have cloned that before posting :w3. I especially need to learn how to deal with BG noise, with the 7D and high ISO needed sometimes, I see it is a necessity.

[Iain Barker]

There is a noise reduction thread started by Artie in the educational resources here (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/23825-Noise-Reduction-Primer-and-Questions) that might help you.

[Edward Arthur]

Could someone explain the head angle issue? I don't understand.

[WillieHall]

I did remove the distracting dark areas, warmed slightly and tried to do some noise reduction......studying RAW all afternoon:eek3:

[Diane Miller]

I'm late to the party and will be for the next week -- younger daughter is getting married -- will take my attention!

Good improvement here. Most recently, I like Topaz DeNoise and Nik's DFine for noise reduction. There has been a lot of improvement since 2008, when the above-cited thread was written. I think if you view it at 100% you'll see some odd artifacts -- the best fix for noise is prevention. Expose to the right. Lightening underexposure, especially on the 7D, will show up noise.

But the bird looks sharp and I like the pose and perch.

[Doug West]

Edward...

I'd start with this thread: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/69803-Head-Angle-Fine-Points

Plenty of fine examples and discussion.

Everybody's different, but for me, the head angle has to be at least parallel to the camera. If not, its 'almost' an
automatic delete for me.

Doug


Could someone explain the head angle issue? I don't understand.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

I did remove the distracting dark areas, warmed slightly and tried to do some noise reduction......studying RAW all afternoon:eek3:

You've done well - I like the 2nd version - everything seems much 'clearer / cleaner'! Well done!

[Edward Arthur]

Edward...

I'd start with this thread: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/69803-Head-Angle-Fine-Points



Thanks for the link. Very interesting stuff.