Displaying Canyon Towhee

[Isaac Grant]

When photographing songbirds I try to always have an interesting perch that complements the birds. In this case, since this is primarily a ground dwelling bird I was fine with the perch. It shows how well they blend in and the combination of the light and the display I think more than make up for the perch. Photographed in early morning light. The RAW file on this was extremely sharp and I applied just a touch of sharpening to this for web presentation. .3 and 75 using Smart Sharpen. Also had to reduce the image quality to 81% to meet the size restrictions of the site.

Canon 1dx mark ii and Canon 600 f4 ii + 1.4x iii. F9, ISO 1250, SS 1/2000

[William Dickson]

Love the DOF. What a lovely pose you captured from a good low angle. Perfect HA. Lovely detail on the bird and the sharpening looks spot on from here. Did you find it difficult to choose a crop.. i like the crop you chose.

Will

[Isaac Grant]

Thanks William. Yes I thought the pose made it a bit difficult to crop. I chose this crop as i thought it gave just the right amount of room around the bird.

[annmpacheco]

Hi Isaac, good to see you posting and what a winner here! Lovely colors, interesting display, i really like the "mini blinds" the folded feathers gave here! Sharp as can be, love the ruby eye and the orange rump! Superb

[John Mack]

Looks good. Interesting pose the light is pretty nice. Composition works well. Image quality held up very well. No surprise there.

[David Salem]

As we've talked about before, the light angle in this image is lined up perfectly. Not sure if people really realize how critical it is to be lined up perfectly. This is a perfect example. Look at it every part of this bird is covered in light from the tip of its tail, to the front of its chest, to the tip of its beak to the rear toenail, every part of the bird is perfectly lit. It's what makes this image so striking, even though it's not a particularly Beautiful bird. The catch light tells the whole story. DFC!! Awesome details and colors. Great image Isaac!!

[gail bisson]

Very nice image of a rather plain bird!
Perfect parallel pose and I love the IQ and the shadow on the ground. Nice to see the hint of orange in the rump. Love the eye and that perky pose.
well done Isaac!

[Arthur Morris]

Nice. Where? What date? SH, EXP, and pose perfect. Getting down on the ground migh have been fun ...

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

As we've talked about before, the light angle in this image is lined up perfectly. Not sure if people really realize how critical it is to be lined up perfectly. This is a perfect example. Look at it every part of this bird is covered in light from the tip of its tail, to the front of its chest, to the tip of its beak to the rear toenail, every part of the bird is perfectly lit. It's what makes this image so striking, even though it's not a particularly Beautiful bird. The catch light tells the whole story. DFC!! Awesome details and colors. Great image Isaac!!

Who the **** every came up with that light angle stuff?

with love, artie

[Isaac Grant]

Thanks Artie and others. I forgot to add that info. I was somewhere in Arizona. Couldn’t remember the name of that place if my life depended on it. Taken in mid July of this year.

[Bill Dix]

David took the words out of my mouth -- perfect sun alignment. Also POV, pose, detail and comp. I had the same thoughts when attempting too photograph a few Towhees on my trip to Arizona. I kept wanting to get one on a branch but soon realized that the ground is where they like to be, so you captured the perfect setting.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent for all the reasons stipulated above!! Only thing is careful with the cloning in lower left corner (I see a repeating pattern from behind the foot). Don't ask how I saw it, it just caught my eye...

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent for all the reasons stipulated above!! Only thing is careful with the cloning in lower left corner (I see a repeating pattern from behind the foot). Don't ask how I saw it, it just caught my eye...

Hey Dan,

Are you talking about the area outlined in red (from the lower left corner)?

with love, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, and extending a little lower (to the edge of your insert). That pattern is repeated behind the foot.

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, and extending a little lower (to the edge of your insert). That pattern is repeated behind the foot.

Thanks Dan for the red circles. Now that you point it out the Clone Stamp work it seems obvious. I could not find it even with your description. Note however, that there is even more here than meets your eagle eye. The area that I circled was also the vistim of some sloppy Clone Stamp work. Why? The is an obvious depth-of-field mis-match. All of the small pebbles on the same plane should show the same degree of sharpness. The area that I noted is not as sharply focused as stuff on the same plane farther to our right. That is why I like to try Content Aware Fill or the Patch Tool. I rarely use the Clone Stamp Tool. (Note; both of those rely on blending rather than copying ...)

I am shocked beyond belief that Isaac actually cloned out some distracting stuff after he wrote this in Gail Bisson's Piping Plover post here (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/145826-Piping-Plover-fledgling-wing-stretch): And funny enough I like the pebbles and stuff because reality is that shorebirds live in and prefer this habitat as opposed to the “ideal” claean habitat so prevalant in shorebird photography. I guess that he makes exceptions for landbirds. :) (BTW, this paragraph was written with tongue in cheek.)

Isaac, in all seriousness, it would be great if you could post a JPEG that represents the the full frame original capture.

with love to all, artie

[Isaac Grant]

Nice catch Daniel. The birds were kind enough to leave a little pile of white stuff in that spot and clearly I did not pay too much attention to making it perfect. See Artie I'm out of practice I guess as I like to mostly post clone free stuff :c3: Will fix the original which is beyond an easy fix. Sometimes I find that I am so focused on not oversharpening the bird or something that it is easy to miss an obvious error. Or you stare at something too long and just can't see the obvious. But that is what this site is great for. Good to have more than one set of eyes on these photos. It’s always appreciated.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice catch Daniel. The birds were kind enough to leave a little pile of white stuff in that spot and clearly I did not pay too much attention to making it perfect. See Artie I'm out of practice I guess as I like to mostly post clone free stuff :c3: Will fix the original which is beyond an easy fix. Sometimes I find that I am so focused on not over-sharpening the bird or something that it is easy to miss an obvious error. Or you stare at something too long and just can't see the obvious. But that is what this site is great for. Good to have more than one set of eyes on these photos. It’s always appreciated.

Mostly ... :) Heck, I've had two of my very best recent images busted by folks on BPN for careless Photoshop work :( That said, both for educational purposes and my own edification, please do post a JPEG that represents the full frame original capture.

With love, artie

[Daniel Cadieux]

I also had an image called out a while ago that had an obvious processing mark that I had not been careful with. I agree it's a great thing with BPN as this keeps us on our toes to work better and less sloppy.

[Isaac Grant]

I'd like to blame that error on my kids. I was interrupted while processing that image a thousand times and got so distracted that I forgot to even check for it. :Whoa!: No way if I was in my right mind I would leave that! or even use that obvious rock as a cloning source, let alone post it like that!

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Isaac, Third try: can you please post a JPEG of the original image as is came out of camera.

with love, artie