I Love Bramblings!

[Craig Brelsford]

Last month in a Shanghai park I found a flock of perhaps 100 bramblings gorging themselves on berries. This shot has a relatively clear background while still telling the story of the fruity feast. On a sunshiny day, I followed the simplest of Artie's bright-light tips: I found birds in the shade. I Photoshopped this but a little. (I calmed down the sunspot on the leaf adjacent to my brambling's tail.) Thanks for taking a look.

Device: Nikon D3S
Lens: VR 600mm F/4G
Focal length: 600mm
VR: OFF
Aperture: F/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/160
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Metering: Center-Weighted
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 1000

[Randy Stout]

Craig:

I think you met your goal of telling the environmental story while showing off the bird nicely.
Good call to tone down the leaf.

I had a minute, and tried to take that idea a bit further. Since shooting with a polarizing filter is difficult under those circumstances, I took the liberty of doing a post processing tweak by running a light multiply blend mode on the bird and foliage. It is fairly subtle by itself, but next to the original, I hope the bird has a bit more pop and some of the foliage is less shiny. I think the berry clump benefitted from this treatment in particular.

Cheers

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Craig, this little guy is similar to our house sparrows with regards to size, detail and colours. Good to his beak full of berries, and I like the pose and HA. Im glad you managed an open shot.

[Craig Brelsford]

Hi Randy, I appreciate your taking the time to do the light multiply blend mode on the brambling and vegetation. Funny, I see the difference more in the plumage than in the berries. Stu, hi, and thanks. The brambling is a Palearctic bird that reaches North Africa but does not cross the Sahara.

[Hendri Venter]

Very nice Craig. I like the inclusion of the leaves and berries.

[Randy Stout]

Hi Randy, I appreciate your taking the time to do the light multiply blend mode on the brambling and vegetation. Funny, I see the difference more in the plumage than in the berries. Stu, hi, and thanks. The brambling is a Palearctic bird that reaches North Africa but does not cross the Sahara.

Craig:
It def. did effect the plumage as well. When I was working on it, I had the original showing and tried to enhance it rather than dramatically alter the image.

Cheers

Randy