Green Jay

[gail bisson]

I took this in Texas last May at Santa Clara Ranch.
Attracted by suet and water.
Canon 1 DX 600mm
ISO 2500 SS 1/1600 F 5.6
I was trying the camera in auto ISO mode because the light was changing constantly due to clouds.
If I had been in manual I would never have udes an ISO of 2500 but image turned out OK.
Cropped to full vertical from landscape orientation.
Nothing added or cloned.
Comments and critiques always appreciated and learned from with thanks,
Gail

[Jonathan Ashton]

Good DOF lovely detail in the dark and lightplumage and a nice pose /perch. I wondered why you had reservations over ISO 2500??
I know you are particular about accurate colour balance Gail so I am slightly hesitant to suggest that perhaps there is a little too much yellow in the image?? Maybe it's me just not used to sunshine - not seen any for a while:S3:

[annmpacheco]

Super job here Gail, lovely pose, HA, and colors are accurate IMHO! I love these jays and you have captured the FFD and controlled the black very well. Oh yeah remember it was 104 degrees too! Love the clean BG

[Arthur Morris]

Very nice. Almost a bit too big in the frame. Face could he opened up just a bit. Just curious: was the perch part of a natural growing tree or was it cut and erected?

with love, artie

[gail bisson]

Hello all!
Jonathan- I had to pull out an old external hard drive to locate the RAW and you are correct. For some reason I changed the color balance from auto to daylight in DPP. My bad and I will do a repost. I am slipping....:tinysmile_shy_t:
Artie- Yes, that was a perch set-up. I have no more room top or bottom but could add some canvas when I repost. I can see the pruning shear cut on that little branch in front of the jay that gives the set-up away. I really am slipping.....
I cloned out some little leaves from LLC and cleaned up the pruned little branch. Also cloned out the little twig in between the feet. I corrected the color balance. reduced posting size a bit
Thanks for the comments.

[Arthur Morris]

No worries Gail. I did not see the cut. I just figgered.

with love, artie

[dankearl]

Repost much better for me, more room, better color.
You got a lot of DOF at f5.6....

[Joseph Przybyla]

I like your original post better. In the repost the greens are becoming washed out on the bird and leaves. I am not familiar with the plant or bird so not sure how green the leaves should be or the green of the jay. The bird is quite striking and beautiful, lovely image. Thank you for sharing, Gail.

[Isaac Grant]

Hey Gail this is super pretty. I love Green Jays and you have captured this one beautifully. Colors are much closer to being accurate in the original post and not the repost. For me the repost is much too washed out and pale. I did the following which I think got the colors just right:
Ran auto tone on whole image
Warmed it up a little bit
reduced yellows a tiny bit
ran a 25% detail extractor/tonal contrast on bird and perch. Did not bother to make a perfect selection.
I also did a curves adjustment where I put the black point dropper on the blackest part of the bib and then lowered the opacity of the layer until it looked right. It was at about 50%
The differences are very minor at best. These birds are strikingly greenish yellow with almost a cobalt blue on the head and turquoise on the tail.
Had to lower the quality a bunch to meet size restriction.

[John Mack]

Very nice. The pose and perch are spot on. The details look nice as well. Great background.

[Ivan Sjogren]

Stunning portrait! Isaacs looks spot on. I love the perch, the green complimenting both the birds and the BG. The pose and the feather details are all very nice. I like that the tail is a bit OOF.

[Jack Backs]

Like the repost white balance. My only quibble is the head doesn't appear to be quite as sharp as the body.