Cactus Wren in our garden

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Folks;

Enjoying a loverly day, as usual, and photographed this noisy Cactus Wren this morning.

Comments welcome & always appreciated.

Gus

Olympus E-3, Zuiko ED 50-200mm f2.8-3.5 SWD, @ 400mm Gitzo monopod
F/6.3, 1/160s, ISO 100, -0.30eV, cwa, sRGB, AWB

[Svante Larsson]

Looks very nice with good exposure and sharpness. I would however darken the bird and the perch slightly (especially the claws and the perch). The background looks a little bit noisy on my screen and could possible do with some blur or noise reduction. The bill seems to melt into the head and isn't so clearly visible (maybe also a little bit soft) which I think reduces the strength of the image a bit.

/Svante

PS! I am only a newbie so maybe I am totally wrong!

[Ray Rozema]

Like that you are nearly a eye level. the breast looks sharp. there appears to a artifact in the iris, a criss croos pattern, puzzling I agree w Svante about the bill and background.

TFS

[Geoff Warnock]

Hi Gus, it's a nice bird in an action packed pose. Did you crop quite a bit to get this composition? If so I'd be inclined to leave the bird a bit smaller in the frame which could alleviate some of the pixelation (e.g. visible noise in background and pattern in the eye). I built myself a blind in our garden so that I could get much closer to the subjects and avoid having to crop much. All I have to do now is spend more time in it!

[Gus Hallgren]

PP in CS5 . . . any improvement?

[Ray Rozema]

Eye looks better and less noise

[Geoff Warnock]

Hi Gus, the bird looks better but I think you could get away with a lot more noise reduction on the background. It still looks like you went for a large crop which seems to make everything less sharp. Have you got a slightly less tight version as I think that could really make your image stand out even better?