Evening Grosbeak Male in Light Snowfall

This photo was taken in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada. Conditions were partially sunny, during a light snowfall.

My Canon EOS 7D mkII, and EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens were handheld. Settings were f/5.6, 1/160s, ISO 200, 400mm, manual exposure, and spot metering. Shot RAW and processed in Lightroom.

Aside from regular processing, I cropped a 9MP image from 20MP original, cloned out a few pine needles along the edges of the frame, cloned out a few out of place snow flakes, and applied NR to the background.

The background is an OOF snow covered pine tree, which was unavoidable. I tried burning and cloning out some of the dark areas, but ultimately chose to leave the background as-is.

Critiques very much appreciated - Thanks for having a look :)

Ross

I like the pose, perch, sharpness, falling snow and natural BG is no problem for me. A well composed image Ross!

A very pleasing image Ross and a fine posing bird. I love the perch and I'm fine with the background as is.

Excellent perch and nice pose of this good looking bird. The yellows look slightly blown on the left side of the breast. You might be able to get it back in RAW.

Beautiful looking frame Ross. Lovely detail on both bird and perch, and both fit nicely with the BG. Great pose and HA.

Will

Thanks Karl for pointing out the near blown out yellow of the left side of the breast. A subtle burn in LR, preserving evidence of the direction of light seems to have done the trick :)

Critiques very much appreciated - Thanks for having a look :)

Ross

Repost looking good, and seeing more detail after the burn.

Will

Nice image,like the perch and pose,repost for me.

Whatever you did on the repost Ross certainly worked, very nice capture.

Keith.

I love the perch! One of my favorite winter birds, the drive to that spot is always worth it. I understand your concern about the BG, but it's not too bad.

Thank you everybody for lending your eyeballs to this image and posting greatly helpful ideas and feedback!

Ross

Wow! These are pics that we will remember for a long time. I just loved your pic and to be frank, I’m sad that I’ve never got a chance to take pictures like this. Even though I had been to 2 0r 3 times to this park, I have never captured anything beautiful like this. I guess there are a lot of birds nearby the adventure lodge inside the park. I have stayed there for the past 2 times and it was also a nice experience for me.