Long-tailed Tit

[Simon Wantling]

Managed to photograph this today. I'm fairly pleased with it. Any comments on how to improve would be great. I'm still a little unsure on the best way to reduce the noise, so I have left it. I've also left the OOF blade of grass at the tail tip, as with the noise, it looked a little hard to clone out. I've basically processed it in Lightroom 3 and run and USM in photoshop. For me the bird doesn't look quite right - almost a bit super imposed onto the background. Do you agree?

Anyway, as always comments and advise more than appreciated.

Canon 7D, 100-400mm, ISO800, f6.3, 1/2000

http://www.back-garden-moths.co.uk/7D/LLT-BPN.jpg

[EzhilSuresh]

Simon, I like the way the bird is on the perch. The bird's head looks soft. Head angle towards us could have made this better looking. Personally I'd remove a bit from the bottom of the frame.

I spotted a pair of these today but didn't manage to get anything decent.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Simon, I dont know this species, but certainly an interesting looking fellow. With regards to reducing noise, you mention you have photoshop, so you can do the following. Select the BG, go to filter-reduce noise, and adjust the strength, and it should reduce the noise on your BG. There are various plug ins that can do a better job. In this, did you select the bird and sharpen it, or did you sharpen the whole image? I also wish the bird turned his head slightly more towards you.

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks for the replies.

Stuart - what's the best way to select the background? I usually sharpen the whole image then use a layer mask to reveal sharpening on just the bird. Is that deemed the correct way?

I tend to agree on the crop and might look at removing some off the bottom.

Thanks again.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Personally I like the composition as is. Aside from the HA already mentioned I do like the rest of the pose. For me the bigger issue with the image is the OOF plant in the background, I do wish it wasn't there (and I do realize it is not always possible to avoid these things, unless from a setup). There are many ways to sharpen selective objects, and yours seems to be a good way. Only thing is to be careful with the selection at the edges as this can make your subject look superimposed like you have here (especially forehead and chest).

[Simon Wantling]

Thanks Daniel for the advice. I was concerned it looked a little super imposed and I can see the reason why now. I was careful to paint close to the bird edges so I need to look into that. For info, on the USM I changed my tactic a bit after reading a sharpening post elsewhere in the forum and chose to sharpen with a 0.2 radius and a much higher amount rather than a radius of 1. I think it shows more detail this way - is this the general opinion?