Field Sparrow, juvenile

[Julie Brown]

Canon 5D MK II, Canon 300mm f4L IS + 1.4X TC (420mm), Tv, f5.6 @ 1/1000sec, ISO 640, +2/3 EV, pattern metering, shot 8/22/10

PP: LR 2.6
very large crop (>60%)
cloned out bits of leaves sticking into frame at edges
NIK: Viveza, ColorEfex Pro, Sharpener Pro, Dfine 2.0 for NR

PSE: forgot to set black and white points in LR so I used auto smart fix after resizing, which punched up the contrast a bit and removed a yellow color cast

[Sid Garige]

Exposure looks great. Great pose and eye contact. I am going back and forth on the leaves. Not sure.

[Julie Brown]

Thanks for the comment, Sid. I feel the same way about the leaves.

[Jeff Dyck]

I really like the pose of the sparrow and the background in this shot Julie, but I do find the leafy branch draws attention away from the bird - I'd consider a bit of blur applied to the leaves. Perhaps a bit of CW rotation?

81106

Edit - not sure what happened with the colour in the repost - I didn't touch that...

[Duane Noblick]

I find the Sparrow a bit centered in the frame and I know it's already cropped a lot...maybe move the bird more to the left of the frame? I like Jeff's blurring on the oof leaves and like the head angle and sharpness of the image.

[Julie Brown]

Jeff, I really like what you did in the repost. I am assuming you used a layer mask?

Duane, I thought it was too centered as well, but my crop was limited by a lot of busy vegetation surrounding the bird. I suppose I could add some canvas to the right side...

Thank you both for the comments.

[Stu Bowie]

Julie, good choice to go for a vertical comp, although I would still come in from the left a bit more. The RHS space is fine as is. Super pose, sharp, and against a colourful BG.

[Jeff Dyck]

Jeff, I really like what you did in the repost. I am assuming you used a layer mask?

Yes Julie - I replicated the original image in a second layer with a quick mask of the bird and branch and then applied a bit of gaussian blur to the under-layer.

[Jan Wegener]

I find the origial post much better. Color wise and also the leaf has to be sharper. If you don't like it, you should clone it out. Blurring it makes it only more distracting imo

[Arthur Morris]

Did not see Jeff's excellent repost; I came in a bit tighter. In the orig. the little bird was lost in a big frame.... Good catch also by Jeff with the need for rotation. Mine was 1.8 degrees clockwise. IQ held up nicely despite the large crop.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

The original works for me Julie, just place the bird off center more. It looks like a happy snap that way. If you know what I mean. IQ is pretty good to me. :)

[Julie Brown]

Thank you Stuart, Jeff, Jan, Artie, and Akos for the additional and helpful comments.
I was initially confused about how to crop this or what to do about the leaves. The CW rotation definitely helps! Artie, the tighter crop really helps to feature the bird, thank you for the repost.
BTW, the Canon 5D MKII has allowed me to shoot with higher ISOs and to get away with huge crops (when I can't get close) and still have acceptable IQ. It is an amazing camera, IMO.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. This tighter crop also allowed for the exclusion of the worst of the whitewash :)