Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

[Jonathan Ashton]

I noticed a small flock of juvenile Goldfinches flying from my garden pond to the feeding station via the Vibernums so I quickly grabbed my camera and hid behind the shed, within a few seconds I had a couple of images:

Olympus E-M1X
Focal Length : 420.0mm
Focal length in 35 mm film : 841.0mm
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 1250
Exposure compensation : 0.0 EV
Shutter : 1/2000 sec
Aperture : F5.6
Flash : OFF

ACR/PSCC

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hi Jon. aren't backyards wonderful especially in these times of pandemic. Nice wing spread, soft background, sharp on the head and body. I like the image, thank you for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto Joe except that I love this one. The super-sharp eye, and the very blurred primaries. Along with a killer BKGR. My only wish is that the flower in the LRC were not cut off by the frame edge. That would actually be an easy repair. LMK If you are interested.

with love, artie

ps: this is one of your best!

[John Mack]

Nice sense of motion in the wings on this one. The flowers are a nice touch as well. Great background.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, you nailed this one, body sharp and the wings have nice movement in them, the purple flowers add a lovely pop to the frame.

I can see another option with the exposure lifted, reducing the blue in the wings so they are more neutral (based on our Goldfinches) and the BKG with a bit more 'vibrance' to it, but don't use vibrance.

TFS
Steve

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks for the feedback everyone, glad you liked it. Yes the flowers were not quite there for a good composition, I did in fact superimpose the previous frame on another version of this but I felt it was cheating a little. I also made a re-cropped version so the flowers were in the frame. I just wanted to show that opportunistic photography can be good fun. The shutter speed was a guess, I suspected 1/1600 wouldn't be quite fast enough and I knew that 1/3200 freezes most motion in the garden, hence 1/2000 sec.

Artie - yes please I would be keen to see what you would do.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon ... lovely capture and i do like the blurry wings a lot more , than the typical static wings in all kind of poses ... very often posted here :w3.
This is giving a great sense of action and a dynamic image .... very nice !!!
The flowers in the lower corner are ok .... but if they were not there , I would not care either . And if one is cut off ... well I would not care .
I personally would rather care to squeeze out the last bit of tone and color .... I am very similar to Steve and his thoughts .

Cool shot Jon ... TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Andreas/ Steve I don't think there is much in the way of tone and colour to squeeze out, this is a wet juvenile so I feel opportunities are limited.

[Steve Kaluski]

Andreas/ Steve I don't think there is much in the way of tone and colour to squeeze out, this is a wet juvenile so I feel opportunities are limited.

Hi Jon, I can only base the feedback on what's presented. The choice is yours at the end of the day, personally I will always endeavour to replicate the original vision, however there are times as an 'artist' we need to move away and perhaps go a little more off piste. My choice will always be to show the subject in the best 'light' (no pun indented) as I can. We all see things differently even if we both have the same brand of monitor, however my comments have always been on making the changes before commenting, then I know it works IMHO, based on the OP, not the raw.

This was my take FWIW. :S3:

[Jonathan Ashton]

Thanks Steve, I can appreciate the difference. The light was not very bright, I feel your version is a little washed out. I really don't see the need to go off piste, but then I am not by any means an artist. I try to replicate what I saw simple as that.

[Steve Kaluski]

I am not by any means an artist. I try to replicate what I saw simple as that.

LOL Jon, I use the word 'Artist' very loosely because to me, since the advent of Digital, we have to manipulate the image/file, irrespective of one slider or fifty and endeavour to present it in a pleasing manner. Compared to the days of Transparency where you were very limited in what you could actually do and so to me, the Photographer has now moved to Artist or Creator. :S3:


I feel your version is a little washed out.

Jon, again it comes down to what we see again, but I know you had some issues with colour settings which have been resolved, but have you tweaked your Calibration again, as you did a while ago and it wasn't right? Just a thought. :w3

BTW Just packing and flying out for two weeks, Gabriela is away too,

[Jonathan Ashton]

Steve, thanks for the concern over my colour settings, I do tweak and alter workflow as indeed do you, in fact you said only last week or the week before you had some issues with your new PC, some conflicting files or settings - when I mentioned posterisation - remember?
I am confident my monitor is accurately calibrated with a max delta E lower than 0.8 at present. The debate is endless what I see what you see, the fact is you do prefer in general a slightly higher exposure than I do, no point in having this repetitive dialogue any longer I sense many are getting bored with it.