Hooded Oriole

[Charlie VanTassel]

Yesterday I posted a Scott's Oriole that prompted comments about sharpening (or lack of) in particular. Thank's to all for those comments. I've been one of those that struggles with sharpening, trying to find that fine line between over and under.... So this afternoon I searched BPN and found this thread: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18534, and followed the technique described, including adding the the ProDigital actions. Please let me know what you think.

D700
500mm VR
1/800 @ f/11
iso 640

[Simon Bennett]

A fine image Charlie - I like the pose, eye contact and perch. The sharpening looks good although it has accentuated the noise in the background. I often use Neat Image noise reduction as the first step in my workflow, or you could selectively apply sharpening to the bird. Sharpening s a very personal thing: I use Manyks sharpening action.

[Arthur Morris]

Sharpening looks fine as does the EXP, the pose, and the bird. With the light a bit from you left, you waited for the perfect head turn and nailed it. You might try cropping a bit off the top....

[Randy Stout]

Charlie:

Agree with the technicals from above. Very complimentary background and vegetation on the perch.

Artie: I always look at images and make up my mind before reading comments, and thought I would suggest cropping up a bit from the bottom to reduce the competing mass of vegetation a bit, and just a bit from the left, to decenter the resulting composition. Then I read your comments about cropping from the top.

Can you expand at all on your thought process, or is it one of your instinctual .2 second impressions about the best crop?

Thanks

Randy