Cardinal - Juvenile Male (I think)

[Edward Arthur]

The cardinals around here are skittish and don't like to pose. I was happy to snag this little one hopping through the branches.

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Canon 6D and Zeiss 80-200mm @200mm f/5.6 ISO 1250 and don't recall SS
HH and manual focus
Taken between 6:30-7pm
A big crop with DeNoise, knocked down highlights and shadow, increased blacks and whites a bit overall in LR5
ReMask on the body for smart sharpening and deconvolution in CS (maybe a little overcooked)
I could have cropped out the leaves on top to not have a square but I'd be pushing the IQ

C&C warmly welcomed

[Diane Miller]

Lovely bird! And the perch repeats its color. It's not easy to shoot a skittish bird at 200mm. A longer lens would get you a bigger subject and thus more IQ. A 1.4x or even 2x TC would help. Nothing will substitute for magnification.

You did a good job with what you had, though. I'd crop at the top anyway, maybe do a little edge cleanup, and add more on the left if you have it. Keep shooting and posting!!

[Edward Arthur]

Thanks for the helpful input, Diane. I often use a 2x TC in these situations but just didn't have it on this time.

For this RP I started from scratch from the raw file and added some room on the left. (I read your article on adding canvas but easier in this case to go back to the original and re-crop, etc.) I also went out on a limb -- no pun intended -- and healed/cloned-out what I thought to be distracting foliage in an attempt to isolate and draw out the bird. I'm not especially good at this but thought I'd give it a try.

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[Diane Miller]

I like the repost! Not an ideal surrounding, but they are hard to come by. We take what we get. Good job on the healing, except one flaw at the level of the beak, left of the cut-off branch. Often it takes a combination of healing and cloning. I like to do repair work on a copy layer (or a top-level composite layer if there are adjustment layers) and click it on and off to see if I missed anything.