Wren having a sing song

[Paul Burdett]

This male Red-backed fairy wren decided to sing to me whilst being photographed:bg3:
7Dii, 100-400@400mm, 1/800th sec, f5.6, iso400, hand-held. PP in ACR and PS, distracting grass elements removed. Cheers.

[David Roach]

I love the sidelight here as this beauty seems to be singing to the sun. Even the shadow adds to that feeling. Love this canvas overall. TFS

[gail bisson]

Hi Paul,
Lucky lucky you to get this shy bird out in the open AND singing his heart out.
The light angle was problematic here. The body and face are in shadow- this would have been killer if you could have moved around the bird to get the sun behind you.
The BG is great and the perch is OK.
If you had been able to get around to the other side of the bird you would have had a nice catchlight in the eye but as it is now, the reflections in the eye are distracting.
Your cloning work is pretty good but I see a bit of ghosting just above the tail near the body.
Gail

[Daniel Cadieux]

Cool bird belting it out! Tough conditions you had to deal with, and I agree with Gail's critique.

[Mike Poole]

Another agreement with Gails critique. The light angle does have the benefit though of lighting up the mouth. Maybe consider a little cloning in the eye to at least remove the distracting reflections

182189

Mike

[John Mack]

Singning for sure. The light looks a little harsh here. Also agree with gail regarding the direction of the light. But that background is just killer.

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks so much everyone for the feedback. I agree with the lighting critique...it would have been nice to get the sun behind me, but that would have meant I'd have to climb over the fence to do so...and hope the wren would stay there (and maybe rip my jeans doing so...lol).
Gail: Well spotted on the cloning...thought I'd covered it all. However, I did have to clone between the tail, without cutting any of it off...which I'm happy with.
John: Thank you...took me a while to clone the distracting grasses etc and slightly different shades in the BG...so I appreciate your comment.
Mike: Great job on the eye...cheers!

[Arthur Morris]

You did well with the strong, off-angled light. The face and the shadowed side of the bird look pleasingly painterly ...

with love, a

[Dorian Anderson]

Great little bird, but the lighting here makes this a tough sell. It's a shame because the singing pose is otherwise nice!

[Paul Burdett]

Thank you Artie/Dorian. Plenty of Wrens out at the moment...so more will be added to my collection no doubt...Cheers.