Last pose of the Butter Butt

[Diane Miller]

I got this better pose but with the reed behind the head. I was confined behind a fence and was already shooting at about a 45 degree angle to my right. If I had moved enough to separate the head from the reed the bird would have been gone, and my distance to it would have been a lot more. It wasn't staying in one place more than a few seconds. So I do understand that the reed isn't a great feature, but since it's a good pose I thought I'd toss it out anyway. I'd love to get one of these guys on a clean perch with the 600 at a low ISO.

I might try removing the reed sometime when I have time.

Hand held at 400mm, ISO 1600, f/6.3, 1/5000. It was underexposed about a stop and was able to be salvaged reasonably well. Basic processing in LR5. Again I broke my past rules by increasing the default sharpening from 25 to 50, and Luminance NR from 0 to 35. It makes a very slight improvement at 100-200%. Then into PS to remove a vertical brown reed on the left and do a touch of Detail Extractor. No further NR or sharpening. Cropped to 30% of original frame.

[Joe Subolefsky]

I like your fencepost shot much much better. Just don't care for the reed up the front of the bird and behind the bill.

[Norm Dulak]

Lovely little bird, Diane; well exposed, sharp and colorful. And you're right, that is an excellent pose. Despite the distracting reeds, I'm pleased that you shared this image with us.

Thanks also for the story behind the image capture. Your description of how you handled the situation, and post processing, are very interesting and much appreciated.

[Steve Canuel]

Nice detail in that little bird. Also liked hearing the details behind the image.

[Diane Miller]

Thanks everyone! I don't care for the reed either but that's where he was. Maybe I can get a better one another day.