Pileated Woodpecker

[Simon d'Entremont]

I was pleased to take this one off my nemesis list this week...I had been trying for some time to get a good photo, but these birds are uncommon in my area and seeing one with good light conditions or not 50 ft up a tree has been a challenge.

This was with...
Canon 7D2
500mm II F4, shot @ F5
1/800 sec
ISO 200

I had some other shots showing the full body (which would have been preferable), but farther up the tree with less attractive background and less attractive angle. The background is all natural as it was 100 yrds distant, so no Photoshop here, just some adjustment of blacks and highlights in Lightroom. The late day sun was great for lower contrast so I could get both the blacks and whites well exposed. I was pretty close so I needed to shoot vertically...just a little crop (20%) off the top as I was using center point to focus. The tree was actually straight up and down...I added the slight angle to avoid the bird appearing too "upside down"...I'm still unsure if that is the best approach.

(edit: The upload process forced me to make this image 1000 pixels on the long side (668x1000), taking away quite a bit of resolution...the original was much sharper)

Advice appreciated.
Thanks

Simon

[Bill Dix]

Congratulations on a nemesis bird -- always a treat to get one off the list. I like the pose of the bird, but agree with your self-critique that seeing more of the bird would have been better; as you suggest, we often have to make those choices. I could imagine just a tad more contrast on the bird. Around here, ours generally look more black than this. The bird looks reasonably sharp to me as posted, but I have a question: do you resize to the final BPN format (in this case 1000 px high) before doing your final sharpening? If so, the uploading in my experience might sometimes lose a little sharpness, but not a dramatic loss as you're suggesting.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Simon, Congrats on conquering the nemesis! (believe it or not... they visit my yard several times a day, but are most often perched on the feeder.) Good move to angle the tree! As the tiny feathers under the chin are clean and quite disctinct without being crunchy, I'm ok with the sharpness. Good control of the blacks and whites. I'm also ok with not seeing the tail (much better seeing this girl's lovely profile than her "hind end"...lol) Perhaps lose just a tad (tiny tad) off the top, where it gets quite dark. Did you need to "burn" the crown at all? Oh, I also like that the tree is kind of lichen-covered, rather than just bark. Very well captured!

[Simon d'Entremont]

Thanks Bill. I agree with the bit more contrast and making the blacks a little blacker. I think Lightroom sharpens after resizing...I think I'm just pixel peeping.

Sandy, I don't know how or why the crown came out that way....it wasn't intentional. I'll try to cleran that up.

Thanks

[Mike Poole]

I'm happy with the pose as presented. Granted the 'classic' shot has all the bird o the side of the trunk, but we need some variation and this one works form me.

Mike