Willow Flycatcher

[Brian Barcelos]

Took this one a few hours ago. I'm almost positive this is a willow although eastern wood-pewee, alder and acadian flycatchers all look very similar to me. This is the first photo I've enhanced with PS. Hope it looks half way decent. Cropped out about 30%. All critiques not only appreciated but really needed, Thanks for looking.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/3608854401_c11ebf4c55_o.jpg

Canon EOS 20D
Tv 1/750
Av 5.6
Evaluative Metering
ISO 200
Tamron 200-500mm@500

[James Shadle]

Brian,
Beautiful bird you have captured in this photograph.

Positives: Beautiful subject, exposure, warm light, catch-light in eye, great head angle.

Negatives(IMO): Sharpening halo around bill, foliage obstructing view of tail, too much negative space above your subjects head.


Not bad for your first crack at PS:).

James

[Brian Barcelos]

Hey James, Thanks for the critique. How do you eliminate the halos from sharpening?

[James Shadle]

I used a clone tool 2 pix wide and sampled the area just above the bill and head.
James

[Ramon M. Casares]

Brian, also to avoid sharpening halos, what I do is, before I do anything regarding sharpenning, to copy the background layer and sharpen that copy, keepeing the unsharpened one as the backgorund layer, once I gave the USM to the new layer I erase all the borders of the bird where the halo apeared. Hope it helps.

[Brian Barcelos]

Thank you both for the help, I haven't tried using layers yet Ramon but I'll give it a shot. It looks confusing but I'm sure its easier than it looks. Both of your photos on here are definitely inspiration for beginners like myself.