Common Redpoll in flight

[Isaac Grant]

While in Minnesota we spent some time trying to get photos of these tiny finches as they came and went from the feeders. With so many perches all over it was very difficult to prefocus and have any luck so I mostly used my full center zone focused on the edge of the feeder and waited for the birds to approach.

Canon 1DX mark ii and Canon 500 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. F5.6, ISO 1600, SS 1/6400

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Isaac, great technique to achieve this type of shot, and I must say, good DOF if you were prefocussed on the edge of the feeder. I like the swept back wings, and the curled feet locking onto a perching position. I do like your clean smooth BG. Well captured.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Isaac.
Sharp where it counts.Lovely catchlight in the eye.
I see some posterization in the BG on the RHS of frame where I assume you cloned out the feeder?
I see a bit of noise on the OOF far wing. I will often do a bit of NR to this area as it is OOF anyway and so there is minimal loss of detail.
Well done!
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Gail. I don't see any posterization on my screen but I'm sure you do. The background changes from that purplish color to greenish on that side. Must have been some bush or something across the street from those feeders as the same color is in the top left as well. I'm not sure what causes that on certain screens and not on others. I even checked one photo lately on 2 identical screens and there was posterization on one and not another. Wish I knew how to solve that. As for the rear wing I am always torn on if that is noise or just some grain as the area falls out of the depth of field. Anyhow, here is a version with it removed and thanks for the helpful remarks as always.

[William Dickson]

Beautiful frame. Well captured, love the detail you got. HA and facial expression are really good. Lovely flight pose. did you get any with wings forward.. Very well done Isaac. I see some posterization on my screen as well. Top left corner. I get this problem a lot. I found that the least processing you do on the BG, the better. sometimes I have posted a frame with a little posterization, and I noticed that you still seen it, but, others didn't. I'm wondering is it our 27 5K screens... I would love to solve that as well.

Will

[Isaac Grant]

Yeah Will I don't know. It may well be our screens. I have 2 files where the full res are fine but when I downsize there is banding and posterization. Seems to happen on darker backgrounds or especially greenish backgrounds (like where you and Gail are noticing it). Haven't posted them as I really don't know a fix other than cloning from areas that don't have it. Much of what we are seeing surely could be from the differences in monitors or compression I guess. Nothing done on the background other than some NR. It surely isn't on the full res of this and I don't see it here but I'm sure you do. I know Dave and I were looking at a shot where I could see on mine but he couldn't on his and we sent each other screenshots so we could see what the other saw. He also has the 5k iMac. Maybe there is variation or QC issues that you don't get on the really high end or stand alone monitors?

I don't have any wing down shots where the body angle is correct. Mostly the birds were coming from behind the feeder so they were angling away to come in for a landing. I'd love to try and shoot at a feeder set up where those types of shots are easier. Meaning perches on either side of a feeder and all on the same plane so could get birds coming parallel.

[gail bisson]

I like the repost very much. The posterization is much less now. One trick I have learned when I see posterization is to go to Tonal Contrast in Nik Efex Pro and move the midtone and shadow slider down to - 40-50 (or to taste, on the BG only) .
I like the rear wing now!
Gail

[Isaac Grant]

Gail I didn't touch the background at all on the repost. Only applied NR to the rear wing. No clue why the background has changed. Has to be something with compression or different monitors I guess. Neat trick with tonal contrast. I will try that on those images I mentioned and see if it works. Thanks.

[Arthur Morris]

I am not seeing any posterization, just another wonderful flight image. If you do see some posterization, you can try a 70-pixel Gaussian Blur on it ...

with love, artie

[Glenn Pure]

What a 'wow' shot Isaac. No posterisation for me either and something that's hard to solve in my experience. An unfortunate result of the truncated colour space of sRGB. The angle, wing position and background are all pretty well perfect in this one. Wish it was mine.

[David Salem]

No posterization on my screen either.
This one looks Flippin awesome Isaac!!
Great details and beautiful colors.
The light angle looks perfect and I love the visable tucked feet ready for landing.
Not much I would change about this image but I do notice a finger print looking smudge just above the number one primary on the left wing. Easy to clone out.
Speaking of cloning, I sometimes will clone the backgroun of the downsized image, if it has the same color, to remove some of the posterizing.
Well done

[Dorian Anderson]

Great flight image - not a species I recall seeing IF before! Extended feet are fantastic.

[annmpacheco]

HI Isaac, Really wonderful technique and i love this il redpoll with his tiny feet ready ffor anding. I have the same 27inch IMac screen and i see the same posterization on both images... wonder why as well.... anyway, it doesn't distract me from a splendid image. Well done, the repost w/o noise on the rear wing is better.