Northern Flicker - Mom & daughter

[Gail Spitler]

Hi All
I am not confident about this crop, your comments will be helpful I'm sure. I am also never sure what I think about flicker on very textured bark; sometimes the bird seems to get lost in the background? I used f/8 so I could get the daughter in focus as well as the adult.
I am also wondering if I really messed up the PP with too much tweaking???
As usual all comments and suggestions are much appreciated.

Canon 40D with 500mm f/4 lens at f/8.0, 1/1000 sec, EV metering with 0 comp, ISO 500

Gail
ps - Talk about making the same mistakes over & over, I spend the morning at this nest site and got a couple hundred photos of adults feeding young but half the adult body was missing. It wasn't until the evening session after I had already taken another 20 or 30 images that it finally dawned on me that a vertical orientation might give me more space. duh....:o:o;)

[Alfred Forns]

It happens Gail ... at least you did figure it out !!!!

Not sure how much of a crop this is? If you need tighter just stick a converter !! Love the adult's look back and having the nest at close to eye level Exposure is good. Cropping wise might take a little of the left and bottom.

The one thing that you need here is soft light Also flash fill would be excellent since it will be difficult eliminating the shadows ... maybe praying for heavy overcast !!!! As presented you might select the bird and increase the contrasts a bit !!

btw could you get to the birds from a different angle say the side?

[Harold Davis]

love the vertical. as for the contrast between the tree and the flicker, maybe tone down just the tree. might give some separation. looks a little bright anyways. love the interaction!

[Harold Davis]

oops, sorry didnt see al's post!

[Nonda Surratt]

Nice interaction! Wonder about the crop too? Detail around the head doesn't look quite right?

[Katie Rupp]

Harsh light is my nemesis as well; the intimacy is great.

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks everyone. Basically I think I over-sharpened for a variety of reasons that shouldn't be revealed here :-) Harold's reminder about selective sharpening is well taken. And of course, harsh light which was also made worse by all my tweaking. I think I could have trashed the processed version and started over.

Thanks again
Gail