Chestnut-backed Chickadee

[Dave Leroy]

This may be a bit too close. I took a tiny bit off right and bottom to off set the bird a bit.

Taken this morning in a local park. Someone had walked through ahead of me dropping off bits of seeds so birds were quite tame.

50D, 70/200 f4 at 176, f/5.6, 1/320, manual, ISO400, HH.

Dave

[Joel Eade]

Hi Dave,

I like this alot, good focus, exposure, pose, background....not easy to execute on these little guys that seldom stop moving.

Joel

[nancy hazen]

Excellent! I love the colors and composition.
Nancy

[Julie Kenward]

Very nice exposure on the whites and blacks but I felt the midtones were a little bit dark. I used a levels adjustment to bring them up just a bit more by pushing that middle slider a little further to the left.

I also gave the eye a bit of a curves adjustment to pop that beautiful catchlight a bit more.

Overall, very nice image Dave! A different position where the stick would be below or behind him would make this stronger but it's not bad the way it is as it doesn't block any of the important details of the bird's face or body.

You could probably smooth out the BG a bit more if you really wanted to...those few brighter blotches would be less noticeable with a little light cloning or the "paint brush" method we talk about around here all the time.

[Dave Leroy]

Thanks Nancy and Joel.

Very nicely done Jules. Subtle but it makes a big difference. It seems photo finishing is about light touches.
In hindsight I wish i had added a bit of canvas on left for sure and possibly on top.

Dave

[annmpacheco]

Great spectrum of browns. Nice definition of the blacks and whites, brown eye is tops! Sharpness and creamy BG. Nice!

[denise ippolito]

Dave, Really lovely image and sharp details. I like the lightened repost a lot. I might tone down the eye just a hair. Nicely done.:)