Red Crossbill

[Ilija Dukovski]

Here I got a female Red Crossbill. The angle was quite steep, but I managed to get a decent image.
I opened the shadows a bit, since the light was very strong. Cropped. Nothing much more than the usual PP was done here.
Nikon Z7, 200-500mm at 500, f5.6, 1/2500, iso800.

Let me know what you think.
Thanks,

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the perch, pose and good view of the crossbill but it's too tight in the frame for my taste. The pose works to your advantage to help eliminate the appearance of a steep angle.

[Brian Sump]

Ilja, although a tad busy around the head I like the perch as well as the pose. The pinecones add interest which is great.

It seems you got the neck to the tail nicely sharp but it feels like maybe the head lacks a little critical sharpness. Might just be my eyes.

Keep em coming!

[Steve Kaluski]

Images are looking better Ilija, but its a bit big in frame for me, pulling back would help I feel here.

TFS
Steve

[Ilija Dukovski]

Thank you everyone for the comments. I appreciate them. The problem here is that I had to compromise between a busy BG/tree branches and tight in the frame. No easy way out. Thanks.

[Dorian Anderson]

I have several crossbill images, and all suffer from this same issue; it's really hard to get the birds with a clean BG on the pine trees the prefer. That said, the subject looks really nice. Her look is very engaging, and the details looks good from beak to tail. I think
you could use a touch more sharpening to crisp up the feather edges.

[Ilija Dukovski]

I have several crossbill images, and all suffer from this same issue; it's really hard to get the birds with a clean BG on the pine trees the prefer. Thanks. Yes, I have bunch of cones just below the bird, and they would dominate the image if I left them.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Ilja ... what a cool bird , they are very special I think . Funny enough we have the " same species" here in Europe , but I never managed to see them .
Color and Tones are looking to me , specially with the lovely color contrast of the pine and the blue sky .

Maybe a bit tight and low in the frame ....
Technically I think the FP was not on the eye/ head area .... more on the rump . Not sure if sharpening does help .... as there is still some noise in the feathers and even more visible in the blue sky !!!

TFS Andreas

[John Mack]

You handled the light very well. If this is cropped i would loosen it up some.