THEME: Baby Early Bird

[Brian Sump]

186727

This little baby early bird got the worm. And let me tell you, he seemed so proud of himself.

It is along the same shore as the nesting Killdeer I posted on Sunday.

D850
600mm f4e + 1.4TC
HH
ISO 800
1/3200
f5.6


C1P. Then cleaned up the ground and some color and curves adj in PS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Brian, I like the capture and the framing, but the saturated colours, strong light and the 'fur ball' plumage lacking the tonal sharpness/definition isn't really working for me, however... just trying to work out why.

1. Is this a big crop, might be worth posting a FF version?
2. Are the focus points much lower in frame ie on the outskirts of the AF points, rather than in the centre, if you know what I mean
3. Black look heavy and the sharpening too much, sharpening halos especially around the beak

The light looks tough and so lowering the exposure for the whites helps, do this with mask & layers so you can be more specific, you can then see more tone coming through. A better WB (although I'm trying to balance your posting compared to the Raw will help) especially loosing some of the blue in the whites. If it's a crop, having more below helps IMHO. Remember, saturation only works in the top 50% of the colour range and Vibrance is geared more towards yellow. May be a bit more DoF too, say f/7.1 but will let the more experience Avian bods comment on that and at ISO 800 no need for any NR.

Hope this might be a starting point in moving this forward Brian.

TFS
Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Wow, what a cute little fella, and it caught the worm all by itself?? What a a great leaner :-) A fun scene, with the low vegetation giving a clear view of it all. These fuzzballs are tough to get just right as far as sharpening goes as they are by nature, well, not very sharply defined plumages. I like the extra warmth of Steve's repost, but I am ok with your dof - you don't want the FG vegetation strip to get to much definition, and the surrounding plants have just the perfect balance of sharp and soft leaves IMO. I've never lucked out on a young killdeer like this, so I am enjoying this from my chair :-)

[Steve Kaluski]

am ok with your dof - you don't want the FG vegetation strip to get to much definition, and the surrounding plants have just the perfect balance of sharp and soft leaves IMO.

Hi Dan, thanks for chiming in here on the DoF aspect and totally agree, my only thought was, without seeing the raw was..., is the body of the fluff ball just lost through PP, or is it a case of DoF & PP, as the legs & eye appear 'sharp'?

Brian, did you apply any sharpening to the worm, if not it could do with some and help break from the BKG, again, just a thought.

[Brian Sump]

Realized I had a masking issue that was affecting the photo. Here is one with a corrected mask :-/

Steve, the focus point was right at bottom of head at start of the beak.

186737

[Steve Kaluski]

Certainly much better compared to the OP Brian, well done.

Going back to my original thought, is it a big crop, whereabouts does this fall within frame.

[Brian Sump]

Here is the whole frame:

186741

[Steve Kaluski]

For me Brian, that’s a big crop, others who shoot with the 850 may disagree. Getting closer without causing distress To the chick or Mum would have been better, however that might be in an ideal world.

[John Mack]

I don't know after seeing the original the crop held up pretty good. I know the moment would have been gone if you did nothing. A fun image for sure.