Bluebird

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

A bluebird taken an overcast day recently. Looking forward to the arrival of more spring birds here. Pretty standard processing for me, NR at RAW, cloned out an OOF stick on the left

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm
Specs: 1/640 f/5.6 ISO 1,600

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[David Roach]

Love the pose, HA, and BG. Nice soft light showing colors of this beauty well. TFS

[dankearl]

Beautiful...I like the comp with the turned head and the room on the left but
could also see a nice vertical here.
Excellent details and colors.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex, nice capture in some lovely light. Any more below, as I feel it's just a tad tight. Might be a pair of old eyes, but any work on the head, looks a bit grainy in the blue crown of the head, you are only sharpening before 'save for web'?

I can see where Dan is coming from with an alternative crop, but only if you have shot it in 'portrait' otherwise you are just throwing away valuable data/IQ cropping from landscape to portrait, but at the size you could ge away with it.

TFS
Steve

[Mike Poole]

Lovely tones and hues on this one Alex, I like the loose framing, perch is not the most photogenic but not a deal breaker as it flows with the rest of the shot

Mike

[Ivan Sjogren]

Nice frame Alex!

I think the overcast light works nicely here. The cubtle colors in the background are beautiful. The bird itself looks very nice, good exposure, details and colors. Good pose and comp too.
Would have been nice to see this with a more interesting perch.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I'm liking this more than I thought I would, but I agree with a more interesting perch. More birds are starting to trickle in here too...a great time of year!

[gail bisson]

What a pretty image!
I love the BG. Exposure and blues look good.
If this is not a set-up then I am fine with the perch and think the curve adds a nice line to the image. If this was a set-up the a prettier perch would have been better.
I like the amount of negative space you have here.
Gail
PS. I would clone out that big ol' dust spot on LHS near edge of frame about halfway up.

[John Mack]

Very nice. Like the bird looking into the negative space. The curved perch is very neat. Nice background as well.

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all, much appreciated. Not a setup (although I've done them with bluebirds before), but will aim to get some nicer perches. This male and his mate allow a somewhat close approach, but seem to pick the worst perches (wires, poles, etc), so was glad to get one one a natural one with a clean BG. Steve, I can probably back off the sharpening a bit, or add a touch more NR on the bird pre sharpening as I don't think I did any after the RAW conversion, but at ISO 1,600, it probably wouldn't hurt. Gail, thanks for pointing that out -- looks like I need to bust out the rocket blower! Thanks all, best,

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, I can probably back off the sharpening a bit, or add a touch more NR on the bird pre sharpening as I don't think I did any after the RAW conversion, but at ISO 1,600, it probably wouldn't hurt.

Hi Alex, not too sure of your workflow and I only asked because I heard or read somewhere folk were talking about sharpening after 'Saving for Web' which is a HUGE No No, a bit like shooting sRGB. :bg3:

At ISO1600 I would expect very little if any noise, as tonally there isn't huge ares of darks so I think a small amount of NR perhaps, or even zero, but are you referring to Masking, Luminance and Colour? Yes, you can pre-sharpen but again, you shouldn't really need a lot providing the RAW is Sharp, but if you are using the current LR it has upped the default amount so be aware, you might want to peg bits down. You may also find that you don't need a lot of 'Amount' and dialling down the Radius helps IMHO. If you are Exporting from LR fine, but if you are using PS then you will need to sharpen after Cropping prior to 'Save for Web' as you always sharpen at the final size. PS is good for sharpening, however there are so many routes/options to chose from, you just have to find what works for you, as ALL images need sharpening at Output stage, but if you are supplying the image to say a Library or Magazine, then you supply the whole FF image uncrossed & unsharpened.

All the best
Steve