Siskin III

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi folks ... another one from my " garden session" some weeks ago .
I do really like the " aggressive " behavior of this guy .
To understand the content I have to explain that there was the feeder in the URC with another Siskin sitting at it . I removed the bird and the feeder , as they have been a major distraction .

Canon EOS 1Dx II
EF 500 IS L II + 1,4 TC
Tripod

F 7,1 ; Iso 6400 ; 1/2000 sec

Processed with C1 and PSCC 2021 ; cropped to 75 % of FF ; removed the bird & feeder URC ; the perch can be discussed :w3 by some folks ... well I am more than ok with it , but for sure there are better perches on planet earth :t3.

Thanks for looking and commenting to my previous postings .

Cheers Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Andreas, excellent self-critique. Like you, I love the action pose. The perch? Not so much. Like you. Sharp!

I went for the gusto with a pano crop. In addition, I smoothed the background a bit, esp. upper right as things were looking a bit lumpy there.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

ps:I did my best with your credit line :)

a

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Artie , thanks for your comment and your RP .
The crop that you made , well had something similar in my mind during the processing .... but went the traditional route . Personally I do not like to crop more than 30 - 40 % of FF . So your crop would be roughly around 50% of FF , albeit IQ might have held up in this case .
Understand your view about the perch ... but for me the perch is not that important , in most cases . Just a different POV on my side .
Second I am ok with the OP background , do not see a real benefit to smooth out some " cloudiness " or tonal variations . Matter of taste ....
If the the BG would smooth by nature ... I would leave that way .

Thanks again , Andreas

[John Mack]

Neat pose on the siskin. Image quality looks good for the ISO. I like the framing.

[Dorian Anderson]

Appreciate the action given that this is songbird, but I'm struggling with the thin plane of focus and skyward gaze. My feeling is that set-up shots have to be absolutely perfect to land, and I would have waited until
I had better light, lower ISO, more DOF, and a faster shutter.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks John and Dorian for your comments much appreciated .

Dorian - well i have other expectations than you might have . Set-up shot or not , no aperture would have " saved " the DOF in this scenario . Due to the location in my garden i can´t get better light . I agree with you that a higher SS would have been slightly better in this case , but do not agree with your reservations about the ISO . I am not that afraid to push the ISO as most of you folks .
To sum things up .... i have to take what nature and man made elements are giving me in my garden . So i rather take the shots ... instead of waiting for better light that does not come :bg3::bg3::bg3:.
And last but not least , my passion for hairy creatures is higher :w3 .... so i might end up with lower level of quality :w3

Cheers Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie , thanks for your comment and your RP .
The crop that you made , well had something similar in my mind during the processing .... but went the traditional route . Personally I do not like to crop more than 30 - 40 % of FF . So your crop would be roughly around 50% of FF , albeit IQ might have held up in this case .
Understand your view about the perch ... but for me the perch is not that important , in most cases . Just a different POV on my side .
Second I am ok with the OP background , do not see a real benefit to smooth out some " cloudiness " or tonal variations . Matter of taste ....
If the the BG would smooth by nature ... I would leave that way .

Thanks again , Andreas

Hi Adreas, You are welcome. IQ seems to have held up nicely even with the JPEG. It would be great if we could simply ignore a poor perch or a distracting BKGR but that is not how it works for me. As you mentioned this:

there was the feeder in the URC with another Siskin sitting at it . I removed the bird and the feeder , as they have been a major distraction .

I assumed that I was smoothing out some clone stamp marks :)

with love, artie

[Andreas Liedmann]

Well Artie ... it is ok that you are going for perfect perches . I stay my ground that I see it slightly different ....

Regarding your smoothing .... the whole background of the image has the “ cloudiness" in the OP . And no clone stamp was used on my side .... just used content aware fill . That said ... I am ok with the " cloudiness " I actually like it more .

Cheers Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

All good, Andreas. Do know that Content Aware-fill often leaves edge marks.

with love, a