Pine Grosbeaks and Crab Apples

[John Chardine]

One of the favourite foods of Pine Grosbeaks is Crab Apples and this year has been a great year for the finch in the Maritime provinces of Canada. Here is a male gorging himself in December 2007.

Nikon D70, 70-200mm F2.8 AF-S, 1/500s, F5.6, +0.7, fill flash
John

www.pbase.com/chardinej

[John Cooper]

Wow, this little guy has really got stuck right into his tucker!! Focus on the bird appears very soft, and subject is a bit too central in the frame. Cropping right side where perch intersects the branch may help composition. But great subject matter of Grosbeak feeding during winter.

[John Chardine]

I need to learn more about preping a down-sampled image like this. The original looks quite a bit sharper than this one. Perhaps a final sharpening after down-sampling would help?

[Arthur Morris]

I like it and disagree with John on the COMP. I love it as is. The berry on the right balances with the bird. I love the load of berry stuff on his beak.

It sounds as if you are not set up with a good work flow... You should never sharpen your optimized master file and should always sharpen an iimage once it is sized for final usage (such as web presnetation here...)

later and love, artie

[John Chardine]

Many thanks for this tip. I shoot RAW, process, sharpen, then save a TIFF. If I have to downsize I do so on the TIFF but do not resharpen. If I understand, I should be saving the TIFF unsharpened, then sharpen at the last stage of any further processing.

John