The Cute Factor

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX Mk2
f/4 400mm DO Mk2 with 1.4iii
f/5.6
1/1000
ISO 1600

I was photographing woodland birds at a set up when this Long Tailed Tit flew in and perched for a few seconds. Unfortunately he/she never landed on the perch I had set up, as I would have had the tail in better focus...The wee guy flew off as quick as he/she landed, but I did manage a couple of shots....I thought the cute factor made up for the DOF.

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

These are quick birds Will, had a squadron in the garden for a month or two, the noise was deafening as they were feeding little ones.

Being a bit higher to see the feet would I think have been better, colour looks OK, although going a tad warmer and dropping the Tint may help, but a tad over sharp for me and the whites lack any tone, did you up the whites/HL's? Not sure the LH claw adds, might be worth removing?

Get some fat cake in a basket and have them queuing up.

TFS
Steve

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that Steve....I couldn't get any higher, the bird landed on a branch nearby, and not at my set up. I'm torn between USM and Smart Sharpen...I think it depends on the light which one is best...I used Smart Sharpen here....I never upped the whites nor the HL's...What would you suggest to get more tone in the whites.

Will

[Steve Kaluski]

Will, it’s hard to tell when it relates to whites in this particular case. If you want to fire over the Raw that would really help because I’m not second guessing.

Personally I would always err on USM, SS has its pluses too, but only if you use the ‘advance’ where you have another two options, but keeping the radius low is key, go high and you are asking for trouble. At this stage it’s about how it looks, perceptual’ sharpening, but it comes back to how sharp the raw is.

[annmpacheco]

I think you did very well here Will goven the quick touch and go and the non chosen branch. Cute factor overload, what pretty feather colors.

[Brian Sump]

Will, the bird is quite pretty but agreed maybe just a touch too much sharpening.

The composition otherwise works well for me even though the perch was not your first choice. A bit of a bummer about the broken branch right near the tit but still not end of the world.

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

I like the find feather and I see that you can back down on sharpening.

Cute One for sure


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dankearl]

I like this, vey nice closeup.

[Kurt Bowman]

I’m fine with this as posted. I personally don’t feel it’s over sharpened. The whites look good to me as well. My only nit would have been what you already mentioned...the DOF, but I know you had little time to react.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Super shot Will, my initial reaction was slightly oversharpened, reducing slightly would help emphasise the soft feathers. Nevertheless a very pleasing image.

[John Mack]

Cute for sure. A nice view of this little fluff ball. The pose and the background are right on.

[William Dickson]

Thanks guys...much appreciated.

Will