Eurasian Siskin

[Anders Nielsen]

This Siskin is the first one I have seen this winter. It is my first image of a Siskin too so I must say I am quite thrilled. :D

I took the picture through an open door from inside my house. I placed the perch there myself (if this means that it should be posted in the other avian forum please let me know).

I have cropped the image to about 80-85% of the original size. Levels. Noisereduction - first on the background then on the Siskin. Saturation has been added to the background only. Smartsharpen for webpresentation. I cloned out a white spot on the perch.

Please let me know how I can improve my image as I am always looking for ways to do things better.

Canon EOS 400D
EF 400mm f/5.6 L USM
1/160 sec f/5.6 ISO 800
Tripod.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

This is very nice, Anders. I like the pose, details and BG. I would apply a bit S/H to get more details in the shadows and also some NR on the BG. I'm not too crazy about the perch and since it looks cut I can move the thread to the other forum for you. Keep them coming.

[Del Cockroft]

The perch is definitely a distraction but I do like the pose. I would have like the bird a little brighter to show off its distinctive colours. A nice image all the same.

[Lana Hays]

Welcome Anders
The pose is very good and it's always a thrill to get a new bird. I like the idea of shooting from the comfort of your house. It looked like you didn't have a lot of light so flash may have really helped this image. I don't know the bird but I'm wondering if there might be a slight magenta color cast or if that's the natural color of the bird. I'm not crazy about the perch either but if you really do much shooting with perches you'll start looking for good ones and learn what does/does not work. You've got a good start so keep it up.

[Anders Nielsen]

Thanks a lot for the critique to all of you.

I will change the perch as soon as I find a better one. I am afraid that a flash would make it fly away but of course I can't say for sure in this perticular image, but the birds around here are so skittish and I have never made a sharp picture because the bird takes of as soon as the flash goes off. If you have any information on how to use a flash without making the bird fly away I would like to hear it as I don't know how to do this.

Axel I assume NR is noisereduction: I simply can't see any noise on the background eventhough I have watched it over and over again on two different monitors. Is it colornoise or monochromatic noise you are talking about?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks a lot for the critique to all of you.

Axel I assume NR is noisereduction: I simply can't see any noise on the background eventhough I have watched it over and over again on two different monitors. Is it colornoise or monochromatic noise you are talking about?

Yes, I meant noise reduction. It is monochromatic and is most visible in the dark parts of the BG. It's not a big deal. :)

[Anders Nielsen]

Yes, I meant noise reduction. It is monochromatic and is most visible in the dark parts of the BG. It's not a big deal. :)

Thanks for letting me know. I must admit that I still can't see it, but I guess it doesn't ruin the image then.

[Jim Neiger]

Hi Anders,

You have received some good advice from the others. I used their advice to modify your image. Here is my modified version. I selected just the bg, inverted selection (justbird and perch), applied shadow highlight to brighten it up a little in the shadowed areas, inverted selection again (just the bg), contracted the selection by 2 pixels, used the blur tool to blur the bg, then deselect, selection mask to select the bright oof part of the perch, then clone tool to clone it out.

[Anders Nielsen]

Thanks a lot for showing me Jim - I will try to do it myself. It looks great!