Downy Woodpecker

[Joel Eade]

From a setup in my backyard, bird attracted with a feeder. Canon 40D, 300mm 2.8L + 2X TC, 1/160 sec., f/5.6, iso 400. Thanks for looking, all comments welcomed as a learning experience.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Joel, good job in attracting this fella onto a good perch. It is nicely textured and weathered. Biggest concern is the HA, which is looking away in this case. Sometimes a small "pishing" noise will be enough to get the bird to turn its head momentarily. I also detect a bluish cast to the plumage's whites...open up the image in PS, and desaturate the blue channel completely - I am confident you will like the result :-)

[Joel Eade]

Thanks Daniel, I did not notice it but I believe you're correct. Here's the repost.

[Tony Whitehead]

Good advice by Dan and well executed in the repost. Might also be worth knocking back the sharpening on some areas of the perch which look a little oversharpened on my monitor.

[Arthur Morris]

Much better with the whites but you will need to wait for CS-47; I have heard that it will have the HAIT: the Head Angle Improvement Tool. Sometimes just being aware of what a good head angle is can help you improve immensely. See the HA Police thread in the ER.

[Chuck Fritsch]

The framing has left an arrow shape pointing out in the lower left corner. Cloning some of the tree into it might help.