Tree Swallow Portrait

[Dvir Barkay]

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A portrait in the morning at John Heinz Wildlife Refuge. The background blob in the Bokeh is a bit distracting I know. I thought the perch was decent, could be better of course.

1DmrkIII, Canon 300/2.8 with 1.4TC, F/6.3, ISO 500, 1/1250s, Manual, 70% of Original image, processed with DPP, 2014

[Satish Ranadive]

Hi Dvir,
I saw your image yesterday.This extremely beautiful image of lovely bird with nice colors.I agree with you perch is beautiful too.
In order to reduce the impact of dark blob I have composed it vertical.Small part of blob is lighten, also selectively lighten the blacks near eye.
I hope you will like it.Please let me know.

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Regards,
Satish.

[Dvir Barkay]

Thank you Satish! I am happy that you like it. I like your new version as well, especially the brighter eye area, I thought of doing that, but wasn't sure it would look natural, but you did it well. Overall its really good I think, not sure I have a favorite.

[Marina Scarr]

This is a pretty nice image, and the blue bird works quite well against the green BG. Yes, there's black in the BG but it matches the bird's wings. I must admit that I also like the vertical and maybe even prefer it to the horizontal presentation. The vegetation on the perch works well.