Red-winged Blackbird

Shot this guy at the treatment plant. The sun was behind both a cloud and the bird which caused some soft backlighting. I noticed a perch the bird frequented so i kept my eye on it while shooting other birds. I saw it land, and waited until it looked like it was about to fly off before attempting to shoot him. I was able to grab focus for 3 frames--2 of which the bird was behind a bush. I added some canvas on the LHS and moved the bird over to the right, small crop for comp., ran the bird through Viveza and DE to get enough detail out of the blacks. All C&C appreciated.

Techs:
D3S
700mm HH
ISO 1600
f/5.6
1/2000
(Pretty surprised 1/2000 stopped him. I thought it would take 1/2500-1/3200--didn't really have time to change the SS after upping the ISO while waiting for it to take off)

Hi Lyle- this is a very nice image of a tough subject, at least when it's flying! Head angle is really nice as is the BG. The image needs a bit more punch and I think one way to do this is to use Levels to bring the righthand (highlights) slider in to where the histogram starts.

Great capture! Nicely framed and you caught the bird at a good head angle. I agree with John that it needs a bit of a punch. It looks kind of stale to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by John Chardine

Hi Lyle- this is a very nice image of a tough subject, at least when it's flying! Head angle is really nice as is the BG. The image needs a bit more punch and I think one way to do this is to use Levels to bring the righthand (highlights) slider in to where the histogram starts.

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You're absolutely right. I think your suggestion greatly helped the image. Here's a quick re-work. Thanks

Great job getting him in the frame and stopping the action. The original capture was underexposed by a bit, and now that you have brought up the highlights, it has also brought up the noise in the blacks. Not an easy shot to get so good job.

Repost looks much better to me, I would consider applying a little NR, if you haven't already I would apply some-or more initially at the raw stage, then consider again in Photoshop.

Beautiful flight pose with nice HA beautiful BG and composition. Rest is mentioned above.

Regards,
Satish.

Nice image, its indeed good to see this bird in mid air
great job

Very nice image, with nice wing angle and background. I prefer the original, due to less noise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by David Salem

Great job getting him in the frame and stopping the action. The original capture was underexposed by a bit, and now that you have brought up the highlights, it has also brought up the noise in the blacks. Not an easy shot to get so good job.

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The original post is basically the original capture. It's not too far underexposed, but pushing those blacks really brings the noise. I think somewhere between the shots would work best. Thanks everyone.

I've had really good results with NR using Neat Image, which Arash has recommended. The Auto mode is often just amazing.