Great Spotted Woodpecker (male)

[Anders Nielsen]

This is an unprocessed image. I really would like to hear how YOU would process this image as I feel my try wasn't quite good enough. My try can be seen here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3935

Any comments will be appreciated.:)

Canon EOS 400D
EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

1/320, f/5.6, ISO 800, tripod

[Judd Patterson]

The rim-lighting is really beautiful Anders, and like Artie, I wish that you had been able to step over just a bit to the left to improve the angle on the bird a bit. Still, I like the image and your edit. My biggest suggestion would be to try and edit that preserves some additional hints of the background detail instead of going to almost all black.

http://www.juddpatterson.com/BPN/edit_woodpecker1.jpg
Here is a quick edit, where I ran a level adjustment to the full image, curves adjustment layer on the background only, and then using the same background selection I used a color balance adjustment layer to give it a hint of green. I'm not sure if that is completely accurate or not, but it seemed to be a nice compliment to the woodpecker. It's just a start and I'd probably mess around a bit more to try and reduce the contrast (restore some of the detail in the blacks on the bird, etc.) Great bird, and hope you can photograph him more often!

[Anders Nielsen]

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I actually have got an image where the woodpecker is placed better, but I am having a hard time getting the background right (there is a lot of flare). I will post this image later.