Carolina Wren on ice

[Bill Dix]

I know this won't pass muster with the HAP, but I still liked this puffed-up little wren and his icy perch. Taken out of my back door after the ice storm a few weeks ago. C&C appreciated.

D90 | 80-400 VR @ 400mm | ISO 640 | 1/125s @ f/8 | +0.3 EV | tripod

[Alan Lillich]

I like it too. I think you made a good choice at f/8, the BG is clear enough to reinforce the ice yet not distracting. Maybe upping the ISO a stop to get 1/250 would have made the feather detail more clear.

[James Fuller]

I really like how you can see the vegetation through the ice.

I find the vertical lines in the background to be a little distracting.

[Sid Garige]

Very nice job Bill. Represents the winter habitat very well. You already know about HA. Better luck next time.

-sid

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Great composition and subject. Considering you used a tripod, the 1/125 sec shouldn't have been a detriment on feather detail, but it could be a bit better IMO. I'm not sure how much the image was cropped, if it was a bit underexposed (+.3EV might have been insufficient) and lightened in PP, NR was applied, or the RAW was fine in this respect but lost detail in resampling and JPEG conversion.

In any case the eye needs to be lightened. regards~Bill

[Julie Kenward]

Neat capture, Bill! Yes, I have to hand out 40 lashes for the HA but I'll take back 20 of them because the ice is so darn pretty! :S3:

A better HA would make a ton of difference here as would a bit of light on the subject - he feels a little flat compared to the beauty of the ice. I'd definitely try bringing up the light and midtones on the bird and then possibly cloning over the dark areas in the URC.

[Alan Lillich]

Considering you used a tripod, the 1/125 sec shouldn't have been a detriment on feather detail, but it could be a bit better IMO.

I was thinking of subject motion, not camera motion. Tripods and VR don't help with a moving subject, only shutter speed does.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for the helpful and constructive comments. You've made some good points. Certainly the bird would look better if I boosted the contrast on the bird just a bit, or brought up the light and midtones as Jules suggested; and toning down the bright BG will help, as would brightening the eye. The light was very flat that day, and it shows in the image. As to the fine detail, there could be another factor. I've found I get sharper images with this lens if I back off just a tad from full zoom, but for some reason I shot this at 400 rather than say 370mm. Bill, this was actually overexposed by 1/3 stop, not under, so that wasn't the problem. And while more SS would have helped, if I increase the ISO to 800 with this body, I often start seeing some noise. In any case, given the HA issue, I'm not planning to spend a lot of time reworking this to repost, but just wanted to share it because I liked the icy branches. I appreciate the good critique.