Mockingbird flying

[Myer Bornstein]

Taken today at Allens Pond Mass Audubon Refuge was able to catch the mockingbird taking off, watch it for sign that it would fly then took the image Nikon D300s Sigma 150-500.
I am glad the site is back up
Adjusted in PS
150-500mm @ 500mm
750mm (in 35mm film)
1/1250 sec, f/8
Mode: Manual
Metering: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
AF mode: AF-C
White balance: AUTO
Flash: Off

[Arthur Morris]

Good timing and any flight shot of a passerine is a good one. Critical focus seems off a bit. Some additional sharpening should help.

[Myer Bornstein]

Thanks Artie is this better?

[Arthur Morris]

The bird's face is sharper but you need to learn to sharpen selectively as you have sharpened all the noise in the BKGR :) Do you have Digital Basics? (Me thinks that you do....)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Myer You can post over in ETL and will give you some extra help !! It is a neat capture since the bird is fast ! Having the eye out of focus is difficult to deal with, normally sharpening only makes it look worse. Working on the pupil might be better !! Looking forward to the next one !!

[Myer Bornstein]

Yes I have digital basic and I tried to selective sharpen will re-read and try again. I selected the bird with quick selection tool and added a layer mask, something went wrong try try again

[Arthur Morris]

Better to simply paint and create a Quick Mask of the bird's face and then use a Contrast mask. But as Alfred said, trying to sharpen an out of focus eye is tough. Darkening the pupil as he suggested would help too....

[Myer Bornstein]

tried again

[Arthur Morris]

Question: did you do some cloning by the front of the face/bill? That area was a detail-less mess. I re-built it, did some eye doctor work--extensive work, darkened the pupil, sharpened the face at .2/400 or so, and then did a contrast mask on the wings and the tail....

[Arthur Morris]

Well, the face at least looks 100 times better....

[Myer Bornstein]

Artie
I did no cloning on the photo. Did use NIK sharpener but thanks your remake definitely looks better

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Myer, Above is a crop of your original post. As you can see, the head and eye are a mess, especially the area of the forehead where it slopes into the upper mandible.

[Arthur Morris]

Above is a similar crop of my improved version. As you can see, I darkened the pupil, re-built the upper section of the iris (Clone Stamp Tool), and then re-built the lower forehead with several Quick Masks (thanks to Robert O'Toole and APTATS I).

It just shows to go you that it imperative that the eye of the subject at least look sharp. If not, the image will be a failure (with the exception of some intentionally blurred images). In Digital Basics see Eye Doctor and the Basics of Quick Masking. :)

[Myer Bornstein]

Artie Thanks

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. I am looking forward to working with you on the Bosque IPT. :)

[Myer Bornstein]

I need to see it done I have been reading and experimenting on my own except what I learned from Robert Amaruso :)

[Arthur Morris]

Understood. Different folks learn best using different modalities.