Dark Eyed Junco at Southbury

[Sachin Saraf]

I took this image at Southbury CT. This was sitting in shadow and that is the reason for the slow SS.

I liked the perch it was sitting on and it only gave me couple of shots before he took off..

EXIF

Canon 7D
Canon 500mm
Aperture f/4
SS - 1/400s
ISO- 400
Av Mode
No Flash used.

In PP applied NR on BG, selective sharpening on bird and adjusted exposure and curves.

Critics and Comments welcome.

108777

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the perch and composition. sharp. the image is a bit noisy and contrasty, you may also want to lower the highlights a bit

[Sachin Saraf]

You are right Arash..

I hope this one isn't as noisy...

108780

[arash_hazeghi]

noise in the BG has been eliminated, there is still a little bit on the bird itself

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice looking bird, Sachin, and well composed image. Good detail, and like the texture and diagonal to perch. Repost is stronger.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Sachin, great repost, and I like the pose and diagonal perch running through the frame. Lovely blues and greys on the bird, and I feel you are on the edge with the sharpening, or just a tad too much. It is difficult with their type of plumage.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Sachin, nice pose, BG, perch, composition. agree with reducing contrast and less sharpening.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Ditto the sharpening, but I love the bird, perch, and BG (repost). It may sound picky, but I do wish for the head angled a degree or two more towards us.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think you have a fine shot there, I would suggest a tad less brightness & contrast and a little less sharpening.

[Sachin Saraf]

Thank you all....I got the point :-) Here is the re post (Final hopefully). I tried different method to apply NR and realized there is strange dark green band on tail and on wings even in original image. I tried to check if there is any green cast and did not find any.

Beak is pink shade and chest is almost pure white when I select it using PS dropper. Is this normal for this species or is there something wrong with color balance that I am unable to pick?

108836

[Jonathan Ashton]

Sachin looks better but the green band - not sure - you shouldn't get too much chromatic aberration with that lens. Did you process in ACR? Did you try the dropper tool on different parts of the dark/black plumage on the tail?

[Sachin Saraf]

Jonathan I processed this in PS5 and did try the dropper on black parts and it looked fine...