Cedar Waxwing

[Anthony Barsotti]

179304

Hey everyone, I've been reading threads on here for quite a while and finally became a BPN member. Figured as an introduction I'd share one of my favorite shots I've taken over the past few months of a Cedar Waxwing feeding. Thanks for looking, happy to finally join the community here!

[Isaac Grant]

Allow me to be the first to welcome you to BPN. Love these birds and still do not have a shot of them that I am really happy with. Please be sure to include the camera and lens that you used and also your settings and anything else that you have done to the image that you think would be useful for us who are viewing. Your action is fantastic with the mouth open and the berry in mid air. Background is a bit busy and if you are OK with it I would clone out the out of focus waxwing above the bird. The shadows on the right edge of the bird looks a bit too smoothed out from lifting shadows? That is the sort of thing that would be good to know what you did so that we can make suggestions on how to improve an already nice image.

[Anthony Barsotti]

Thanks for the kind words and feedback Isaac! This was shot with my 1DX and 400 DO II with the 2X Extender III. ISO 1600, f/8 and 1/1600th. I post-processed it in Lightroom and did general sharpening, contrast and luminance noise reduction. I used an adjustment brush to bring that shadow on the right edge back by 1.25 stops, could probably apply sharpening to the same brush to negate that smoothing. I also cloned out a branch that was running diagonally across the bird's body in Photoshop. I've thought about cloning that other waxwing out of the background too though yeah, I think if I had shot it at a narrower aperture and it was more defined it wouldn't be as distracting but as a yellow blob at f/8 I agree that it is.

[arash_hazeghi]

Welcome to BPN Tony! you nailed the peak of action with the berry frozen in the air! can't ask for more in terms of the dynamic element. Some of the conditions were not in your favor including the busy BG, the side light that has casted some strong shadows and the slight steep shooting angle. From a post processing point of view the image is a bit oversharpend (shows halos) and the BG is a bit grainy...all fixable :)

you got a great starting point and you have found the right and the only place to help you take it to the next level!

Cheers and welcome

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Anthony, welcome to BPN, and look forward to your full participation. Very well timed to capture 'The Moment', and the bird is framed nicely between the two smaller branches. The guys above have pointed out most of the points. Comp wise, as this is a vertical, I would come in from the LHS a bit, to achieve more of a vertical - just a personal thing.

[gail bisson]

Just popping in to say "Welcome".
Good advice from the guys. I would prefer a lower shooting angle and for a bit softer light (the area by the mouth and on bird's right shoulder are blown and show no detail).
Best part of image is the thrown up berry and the good look at the eye with a catchlight.
Don't forget to tell us your settings and size of crop- it helps us to critique.
Gail

[David Salem]

Another big welcome to the community Anthony!! Great advice from the group. I will say that the critical focus is right where you ant it to be, the berry and the head. Well done and keep them coming

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

Welcome to BPN. You are in the right place to learn and improve Photography.

Nice Image. Love the Action.

Lower shooting Angle and cleaner background will definitely elevate the image.

[Isaac Grant]

Thanks for the follow up info. I have not found a really good way to lift the shadows that much but what I can suggest is 2 things that you can try. In Photoshop you can put the bird on its own layer and then lower the opacity to say 8-10%. Then slowly dodge the area with repeated strokes and see if you can eke out some more detail and lift that area a bit. If that is not working than you can go to FILTER > CAMERA RAW FILTER and choose the brush icon and then use the brush to selectively lighten the area, lift shadows, etc. You can adjust the amounts and see if you can make it work. Let me know if you need help with any of that. The last thing I would say is that shooting angle is vitally important. Keeping the sun at your back or a few degrees one way or the other will typically lead to a more pleasing image with even light and little to no shadows. Not always possible of course but something I always strive for. And also having the sun low in the sky as well.

[John Mack]

You nailed the peak moment of action here. The berry is perfectly framed in the bill.

[Anthony Barsotti]

Thanks everyone! I'm going to play around with this a bit more based on everyone's feedback, I'll post the new edit when I'm satisfied with it.