Waxwing Profile

[Robert Jensen]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4139/4748418120_86782ddcf9_b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobengr/4748418120/)
DSC_17142.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobengr/4748418120/) by ~ Bob ~ (http://www.flickr.com/people/bobengr/), on Flickr

Crop, levels and curves adjustment, sharpen

[Katie Rupp]

Good showing of the yellow-tipped tail and red tipped wing feathers; to me, there seems to be an overall smoothness to the image and lack of fine feather detail so I'm wondering if it is due to noise reduction in pp?

[Randy Stout]

Bob:

Welcome to posting on BPN. Lovely bird, colors, and background, but Katie hit my main concern. Way too smooth. Usually works best to select only the BG and run NR there, not on the bird, unless the noise is really high.

The bones of the image are really good, so worth a second go in my opinion.

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

First thread, eh! Welcome to the critiques section:S3:

Great bird, perch, BG. I find the image just a tad dark (some fill would have done wonders), and I agree about the smoothness issue. Looking forward to more...

P.S. Don't forget the techs as this can/does help with the critique part...

[Robert Jensen]

Thanks for your comments, I do agree, I was lazy and didn't mask the waxwing before performing some noise reduction on the background. As for the darkness, I think I have been keeping my monitor too hot, I guess I had better calibrate the setup!

Here is the additional exposure info
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=lookatme><TH>Camera</TH><TD>Nikon D200 (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/nikon/d200/)</TD></TR><TR class=lookatme><TH>Exposure</TH><TD>0.003 sec (1/320)</TD></TR><TR class=lookatme><TH>Aperture</TH><TD>f/9.0</TD></TR><TR class=lookatme><TH>Focal Length</TH><TD>500 mm</TD></TR><TR><TH>ISO Speed</TH><TD>800</TD></TR><TR><TH>Exposure Bias</TH><TD>-2/3 EV</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>