Red-winged Blackbird

[Joseph Przybyla]

I captured this image a while back at Circle B Bar Reserve and worked it up this morning, Comments and critique welcomed and appreciated. Thank you for viewing.

Nikon D7000
Nikon 80-400mm F/4.5-5.6 VRII AF-S ED shot at 400mm (600mm FFE)
1/1250 F/5.6 Matrix Metering EV 0 ISO 1000 AWB, camera supported by a monopod
Post processed in Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC 2017, burning areas of feathers using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom to even out exposure
Cropped for composition and presentation

[Isaac Grant]

I love the calling pose and the perch. Background is great. This is a species that is practically everywhere but I don't have a single keeper in my collection. Must remedy that this spring.

I don't think this image has the usual image quality that I am used to with your shots. Not sure how the original looks but I just don't see the deep blacks with details that should be there on a male Red-winged Blackbird. Think the burning washed it out a bit and left the bird looking a bit flat. The left edge of the bird looks better than the right side to me. Tail looks better than both sides so I am guessing that you burned the middle to right edge of the breast and belly and the face. I would see if maybe you could go back to the RAW and up the shadows a bit. This is the exact type of situation where I would use the NIK Detail Extractor to try and eke out as much details as possible from the dark areas and see if it worked well. Arthurs 25/25 or 50/50 recipe would be a great starting point.

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

The bird`s pose, perch and nice back ground are a great combination and the image composition looks good to me. I can see some detail in the blacks but one may push this a bit more as suggested?

[Joseph Przybyla]

Isaac and Gerhard, thank you for viewing and commenting. This morning I worked on the image again using a different workflow to post process. I think this is an improvement, better blacks and colors.

[Isaac Grant]

Repost looks much better to me.

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

Agree, the repost is a cracker!