Dark-eyed Junco

[Greg Morris]

Went out yesterday on a very windy day here in SW OK. I was able to catch up with some Juncos that were flittering about. With the wind blowing directly into the lens hood it was difficult to keep steady on my monopod, but I managed to get some decent shots. Cropped, darkened the branch, and made a few small adjustments in LR CC, then moved to PS CC for NR and removal of a small branch.

1DX, 500 f4 w/1.4x, 1/1600 @ f7.1, ISO 640, man exp

Thanks in advance for C&C,

Greg

[Tim Foltz]

Greg, nice exposure, HA and BG. It needs a little bit of sharpening and I would like to see a bit more below the bird also.
You are progressing very well keep up the good work.

-Tim

[Greg Morris]

Tim, I see the difference that your sharpening made. I thought the sharpness was good when I looked at it on my larger monitor, but it didn't come out as well after transferring to the web. If there is a way to set the sharpening output for the web or some other setting I may not have, I'm all ears :) I like the look of the resizing as well.

Thanks,
Greg

[Tim Foltz]

Tim, I see the difference that your sharpening made. I thought the sharpness was good when I looked at it on my larger monitor, but it didn't come out as well after transferring to the web. If there is a way to set the sharpening output for the web or some other setting I may not have, I'm all ears :) I like the look of the resizing as well.

Thanks,
Greg

Greg, yes when you save for web there are different compression qualities that will effect the image, but it is probably that you aren't
sharpening enough to begin with. In most cases it will look better online when you have a tad more sharpening than you feel needed, but there is a fine
line... you don't want your images to look crunchy. As for the resizing I just quickly added a inch or so more branch and BG to your shot so I could re-crop it.
Looking forward to seeing more.

-Tim

[Michael Foster]

Really nice photo. I don't feel qualified to critique it, but I love the wind blowing its feathers. Not at all like the juncos here in VT.

[kevin Hice]

Greg nice photo it did need a little more to the side and bottom. Was just a little too tight. I like how the background colors compliment the colors on the bird. Was the perch a old fence post ? Looks nice the weathered look and also the angle of the post.

[Greg Morris]

Tim, could you tell me how you sharpened specifically? Was it in PS or LR or some other program? I have a pretty good understanding of LR, but am just learning PS from youtube videos. I have other images that I would like to share, but see that they certainly need more sharpening.

[Tim Foltz]

Tim, could you tell me how you sharpened specifically? Was it in PS or LR or some other program? I have a pretty good understanding of LR, but am just learning PS from youtube videos. I have other images that I would like to share, but see that they certainly need more sharpening.

Hi Greg, I use PS, and there are several different ways to sharpen, you can sharpen in raw under detail, you can sharpen after you're done in raw with (sharpen) or (unsharp mask).
I'm sure there is many other various ways you will find by experimenting what works best for you and I'm sure you will change many times over the months and years the way you post process
as you come across different ways. I hope this helps, at times it seems a bit daunting but don't give up. As you have probably seen on youtube there are various ways to get the same results.

-Tim

[Stuart Philpott]

/greg not only is this a new bird to me ,but such a cool way to become aware of them. I love the bkg colours echoched from the bird the exposure looks great to me learners eye the detail in the blacks of the head is really lovely.

Nice work Greg I like this portrait very much

stu