Freeze Frame

[Glenda Simmons]

At the time this picture was taken, my resident male Eastern Bluebird had approached because I was about to give him his mealworm snack. I was standing very close, when I noticed him to just "freeze". After a moment, I looked up and saw, further up the tree, a Mockingbird, also in a frozen stance. I looked behind me, and there was no activity at the bird bath mister. I quickly summarized that there must be a stalker, nearby. It was a very disturbing feeling, as the Bluebird was almost in the open. I was not sure if my standing so close to him, would draw attention to him, or serve as a barrier to an attack. After what seemed like an eternity, I saw a Cooper's Hawk, sweep low and fly from the border of my yard, across the street, behind my neighbor's house, and out of sight. About thirty seconds later, the birds all went back to their normal activity, and I appeared to be the only one traumatized by the experience. Thank goodness the birds have beter instincts than me!

This was taken with a Canon Rebel XTi, 100-400mm at 400mm and cropped a little to prevent having to clone some distrations, close to the bird's beak. (no more room in front of beak) Aperture priority 5.6, 1/400, ISO 400. I like the background, but don't think I had good light or angle to show the blue color on the back of the bird. No flash was used.

[Juan Aragonés]

Superb details here Glenda and great aproximation. It is almost posible to see the "fear" on the eyes. A touch of fill flash would be great for this image ans I think that there is very few contrast between the BG (by the way, BG needs another round of noise reduction) and the bird and you can try to darken the Bg a bit and to apply shadows/highlights filter to the bird in order to improve the result. Keep them coming :-)

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Gorgeous little portrait! Other than what Juan touched on, I feel a bit more canvas on the right would work better. Thanks for posting! :)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Glenda,
Good advice given above and you could probably bring up the back side a bit more. Nice little story about it too.

[Glenda Simmons]

Thanks for the input Juan, Akos & Roman. Because of the panic the bird was already in with the stalking Hawk and how close I was to it, I would not consider using a flash, but can see how that would have probably improved the image. I'm still struggeling with getting good results using flash, as with with my limited photoshop skills, but am working on it. I actually did NO noise reduction on this and would appreciate further input on that, if anyone can advise. I have photoshop 7 (no external niose reducing software) To reduce noise, I go to Filter...Noise...and then choose Despeckle? Does it just do it automatically? Just repeat the process again, for more? I promise, I really am trying to learn this stuff! lol..Thanks for any added help.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Thanks for the input Juan, Akos & Roman. Because of the panic the bird was already in with the stalking Hawk and how close I was to it, I would not consider using a flash, but can see how that would have probably improved the image. I'm still struggeling with getting good results using flash, as with with my limited photoshop skills, but am working on it. I actually did NO noise reduction on this and would appreciate further input on that, if anyone can advise. I have photoshop 7 (no external niose reducing software) To reduce noise, I go to Filter...Noise...and then choose Despeckle? Does it just do it automatically? Just repeat the process again, for more? I promise, I really am trying to learn this stuff! lol..Thanks for any added help.

Hi Glenda,
I use Noise Ninja as both a plug in and it also has a stand alone version. I really like it and it is pretty easy to use. I am not familiar with the PS7 NR........but hope others chime in. If you go to the landscape forums.....there is a sticky at the top of the image forum that shows tonal range tweaks and adjustments. A screen blending layer will work to lighten the far side.....just scroll down till you find the blending layers mode.....it gives step by step instructions and can be applied here to the bird.