WB Nuthatch

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Hi,

Well the joy from my new studio was sweet and short. This morning when I arrived to place I noticed that city has started to use that end of the parking lot where I was feeding birds to dump snow. So today there was 20 ft high pile of snow between me and my birds... :(

I moved my branches to another place and smeared some peanut butter on them so we'll see how fast my customers will find this new place.

Meanwhile I walked around with camera and run into this fellow. My self critic is that I couldn't get in front of the light, maybe I cropped this little too much (I have never liked photos where the bird is larger than in real life) and that lighter upper right corner bothers me a bit.

C & C welcome as usually.


Cheers,

Mikko



EOS 1DMK3
500mm 4.0L + 2.0 II TC
Gitzo + Jobu BW
Av Mode
Evaluative metering + 1/3
ISO 640
f/8
1/200

[Randy Stout]

Mikko:

Great display of the classic nuthatch pose.
Good exposure and the sidelighting is very effective here, like the effect on the foot esp.

A little tight for my taste too. Should be easy to soften the light area you commented on.

Cheers

Randy

[John Chardine]

Great, classic nuthatch pose. Nice BG and I like the tree perch. Often tree perches for these species and woodpeckers present a problem. It is often not easy to decide how much to include and they can sometimes dominate an image. I like the crop although it might be a little tight by the tail at the top. It looks like the focus point was on the hand of the wind and the head looks a little soft.

[Julie Kenward]

Nicely done, Mikko! I agree with your self critique but think you could easily fix a few of these things. For that URC, select the bird and tree, then inverse the selection. Use the eye dropper tool to grab the color in the ULC and then use a soft brush set at 20-30% opacity and paint over that lighter area...it should blend it right in!

I really like the diagonal line of this image. At first I wondered if you needed less room at the bottom and more at the top but now as I look at it I think you might have it just about right. Maybe a touch more on top for the tail to have room but it's really pretty pleasing as is.

[Sid Garige]

Mikko,

Great balance between the perch and subject. Fill flash might have improved this image.

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Thanks guys. I cleaned the upper RC which is for sure better now. But I dunno anymore about the added canvas on left. I think the bird might be too centered now...


Mikko

[Sid Garige]

Mikko,

Excellent work on background in the respost. Very well done.

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Thanks Sid. I hope Santa brings me a flash... :D