Black Throated Gray Warbler

[Ian Cassell]

140732

Canon 7D
Canon 500/4 + 1.4X
1/125 sec f/7.1 ISO 640

Small crop for comp and sharpening in CS6

I wish he came out of the shade for me.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice head turn Ian, sharp. the shadow highlights on the bird are a bit distracting so are the bright blubs in the BG. A setup with a nicer BG would greatly improve this

TFS

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Arash. This was wild - not a setup, but I agree that a setup would have made a nicer image.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Very nice image Ian. I like the curved perch & the HA of the bird. Well exposed.

[Grant Yang]

Hi, nice detail on the bird. Did you happen to use flash on this shot? You did a nice job of integrating flash in a natural way, but there is a highlight on the bottom of the bird's eye which looks artificial like it came from a flash.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks, Arash. This was wild - not a setup, but I agree that a setup would have made a nicer image.

setup does not mean the bird is not "wild". you just setup a perch where the BG is nice. with a busy BG like this, not much can be done. checkout Alan Murphy's guide, many valuable tips

best luck

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Sweet warbler that I'd like to see some day. Nice head turn, exposure and details. Having seen a few warblers migrating through, I know its hard to get a clean shot without doing an elaborate setup such as a water drip. With the shade and the mixed bg you did the best you could. Looking forward to more Ian.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks for the comments, all. No, Grant, no flash on this one. He was in a little cove at a state park (Boyce Thompson Arboretum) and the way the light penetrated was a bit strange which might explain what your are seeing. Arash, I'll need to look at Alan's guide. I'd probably feel a bit uncomfortable putting a setup together in this arboretum, but I do need to learn more.

[Diane Miller]

The bird is beautifully sharp with a very pleasing pose, and the environment is what it is. As nice as an arranged "studio shot" would be, I can live with the light areas in the BG.

But I would try to pull out more detail in the very dark head. A quick mask with a soft brush (staying inside the head to avoid halos) could select that area nicely, and more detail might be found with a Curve or Nik's Detial Extractor. The best detail could be puled out in raw processing, possibly necessitating a separate conversion on a masked layer.