Prothonatary Warbler

[Paul Kammen]

Had some off time at a conference, and recently visited my favorite prothonotary warbler spot along the river in far southeastern Minnesota.

First time out using a Z8 and overall liked how it focuses; very similar to the Z9 and a nice second body.

Thanks for any comments.

Z8, 800mm, 1/640, f6.3, ISO 2200.

[kevin Hice]

Lovely Prothonotary. I miss them had lots in Ohio. Looks good on the details for me wish it was back in the frame. Maybe just a little too big. TFS.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Paul, not as good as the previous posting I feel.

The square crop for me isn't working, there is nothing for the subject to look into especial with the HA, so if shot landscape and more to the LHS perhaps a revisit? Agree with Kevin, more DoF is needed, with less Blue in the WB, the perch is a good source to achieve that. The yellow looks a bit pushed, so you are loosing more of the finer detail there. If you can add about Cropping in future postings this would also help Paul.

TFS
Steve

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great bird, one I have yet to see or photograph - they are simply out of range for us here. Sharp where it needs to be, but the yellows are too bright and the bird too big in the frame. During raw conversion try the highlights slider (judiciously), it may help with those very bright yellows and you may find some additional details hidden in there. After lowering the highlights you may need to add back some saturation, but careful as that can bring you right back to square one as far as details go. Also adding back some canvas, especially at left, if you have it.

[Paul Kammen]

I appreciate the comments; I do have more shots to work with, but there was a little bit of a distraction in the wider angle. I did re-touch it a bit here for highlights and tried to go a touch wider angle on the bird.

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[Dorian Anderson]

Striking frame, but the crop (original or repost) isn't working for me. The bird has no space into which to look. I like the bright yellow but do think it could be tamed a bit as others have suggested. Curious what is so bad on the left side that would went with the cramped crop.

[Paul Kammen]

I appreciate the replies. To the left was a circle; best described as what you'd see at the start of James Bond movies in the opening credits. It was faded, so I did try to remove it using PhotoShop and lowering structure. I also did lower highlights quite a bit on the bird; in breeding plumage these guys are bright yellow of course. Here's a wider crop.

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