Migrating Wilson's Warbler

[Dan Brown]

I haven't posted for a while but I've been lurking! I captured this male Wilson's warbler (a fall migrant) in my backyard near my water feature. Converted and sharpened in Capture NX2, cropped in ACR, (60% of full frame), NR on BG with Topaz Denoise then a little more sharpening on the bird with usm. C&C welcome.

Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Shutter speed: 1/640 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 1600
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-C

[Mital Patel]

dan this is beautiful image. i really miss my 80-400 since it gone broke off on a trip year ago. beautiful image

[Dumay de Boulle]

Nice pose and great colors.. I would take some off the top to strengthen comp.

[Melissa Groo]

Wonderful job on this, Dan. Agree on taking a bit off the top to feature him better.

[Bill Dix]

Very nice, Dan. I've tried several times to capture this species, but have never gotten one out in the open. You not only got a clear view of him, but got a fine pose and nice perch to boot. Ditto the crop suggestions. It seems on my screen that the image may be just a bit too blue, giving the bird a greenish cast (check the little white patch near the back), but perhaps that's his natural coloration. Well done.

[Dan Brown]

Thanks for the nice comments and suggestions guys! In the repost, I cropped tighter and down from the top (keeping the 8x10 ratio). As for the green on the back, it is right for the species, but, after looking, I decided the yellows weren't as yellow as they should be, so I applied a curves layer and a selective color layer, toning down the blues and pumping up the yellows. This seems to dup what I saw in the bird. What do you think?

[Bill Dix]

Color looks better to me. The little "white" spot near the back still shows something like 204-226-247 using ColorPic, but probably that "white" spot isn't really white after all. A fine image.