Loggerhead Shrike

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I made this image at Bear River Migratory Refuge Last Month.

I was driving on the Auto car loop and I saw this shrike perched nicely close to the road, on the passenger side window. This year we decided that my wife will be in Back seat birding so that I can try to photograph both sides from the car and it working nicely here. I took some images from the driver seat, but we not able to get a vertical shot.

Even though I drove the car (slowly) right next to it, it was not bothered by us. So I got down the car and took this image Handheld.

I really like the image and is one of my favorite images of the Year.

Hope you like it.

Nikon D500, 500mm f/4 + 1.4x TCIII
ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/1000 sec
Manual Mode, Matrix Metering.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks
Krishna

[gail bisson]

The BG and image design are superb.
Love the comp, POV and light. I could see a version with a crop from the bottom to eliminate the little middle grass.
The shrike looks a bit grainy- not sure why. Perhaps your sharpening was a bit too aggressive or did you have to increase exposure on the bird?
Great image,
Gail

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Hi Gail,

I saw the RAW image having fine details on the bird. I did try to reduce the sharpness but it seems based on your comment, sharpening was a bit agressive.

I agree with the crop. I just wanted to show un-cropped straight out of camera with NR and Sharpening.

I will try to re-post again using the crop suggested and reduce sharpening on the same. Thank you for the comment.

[David Policansky]

This is a lovely image. Terrific color and detail. I have nothing to add to what Gail said.

[Isaac Grant]

I think the colors and the image design are great Krishna. I like the crop as is because you get those little buds on the left stem that I like very much. You could always clone out the middle stem if you want. Something looks very off with the bird as Gail said. Is it wet? Is it in active molt and maybe the feather look off? I don't think it looks over sharpened but as it is small in the frame it is a bit hard to tell.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm with Isaac in that I would eliminate the small middle twig via clone rather than cropping as I too like those two little green buds. Nicely composed, and a terrific background. I agree the subject has an odd-looking IQ, and worth revisiting, but at least the quality is there on the raw file. Keep it up, you're doing great!

[annmpacheco]

Same here Krishna, lovely frame, bird looks crunchy and i would remove the small middle stem. Hope to see the repost

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Thank you all for the Great Comments/Suggestions.

I cloned out the middle twig. I did not notice it earlier.

I am also posting the RAW Image and changes made in Lightroom. I am thinking the Sharpening was a but aggressive and I reduced the same in the repost. May be it is a bit too much here as well.

[Isaac Grant]

Can't speak to the rest of your adjustments as I never use Lightroom at all. After seeing all three versions I am still unsure what is going on. I do not think that you over sharpened the bird but suspect that the bird seems to be going through a strong molt as evidenced by all of the feather tufts in the head and I imagine the back is the same. Maybe the bird is sick and has not oiled its feathers properly. Anyway the issue seems to me to be a feather issue and not a sharpening issue. And when you lifted the exposure I think it enhanced whatever funkiness was going on in the feathers. Perhaps also the bird is just a touch soft as well and that is somehow amplifying the issue. Strange really. I think you have really enhanced the photo nicely from the RAW and as stated before the image design is beautiful.

[Glenn Pure]

Wow, nice work Krishna. I also love the image design and composition and especially the colour gradiant in the background. The bird does look a bit odd but Isaac may have diagnosed this. Just the way the bird was, maybe. Keep up the great work.

[Arthur Morris]

As far as the image design, this is your best small-in-the-frame effort so far. Others have covered the rest. I still think that the bird looks crunchy. I find it very important with Nikon to expose well to the right ... The original looks at least a full stop under.

with love, artie

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

As far as the image design, this is your best small-in-the-frame effort so far. Others have covered the rest. I still think that the bird looks crunchy. I find it very important with Nikon to expose well to the right ... The original looks at least a full stop under.

with love, artie

Hi Artie,

Thanks for the info. I think the original image was about 2/3 stop under exposed. With my D500 and D850 I think I get away with one to 2/3 stop of underexposure with relatively less noise. But I agree it always best to get exposure correctly in camera.

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the design but the processing is poor.

With Nikon you can actually expose 4 stops under and easily bring it up in post if you use something other than that piece of junk called light room. The image sensor has great dynamic range in D850 and D5 not sure about D500.

send me the NEF file I'll fix it for you

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I like the design but the processing is poor.

With Nikon you can actually expose 4 stops under and easily bring it up in post if you use something other than that piece of junk called light room. The image sensor has great dynamic range in D850 and D5 not sure about D500.

send me the NEF file I'll fix it for you

Hi Arash,

I partially agree with your statement on Lightroom (Piece of Junk) and I completely agree with Image Sensor Dynamic Range in D850 / D5. I have D850 and the dynamic range of D850 and D500 are some what similar but D850 is much better in my opinion.

I will send you the RAW file. I want to see how it looks in Capture One. My guess will be that it will be slightly better then Lightroom :-)

Thank you for helping me.

Thanks
Krishna

[arash_hazeghi]

I looked at Krishna's RAW file, it is not underexposed at all and is tack sharp too. It was held back by poor processing

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Thank you for processing the same.

I agree this looks better.