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Not the uncluttered background favored by BPNers, but this is often how we see warblers. This species in particular is tough since he normally forages near the tops of tall trees. I was lucky to get him relatively low in this visit to Magee Marsh, in May of 2017. One of the most beautiful of wood warblers, IMHO.
D500, 500f4 + 1.4 TC, ISO 2500, 1/1250s @ f/6.3 manual.
Very hard getting these guys out in the open. Habitat is busy but not a deal breaker as the colors are pleasing. Pretty good pose but I wish the bird was facing us a bit more. The bird as presented lacks fine feather details. Perhaps from too aggressive noise reduction? I know the D500 handles high ISO much better than the Canon crop camera. Was the original tack sharp on this one?
I agree these are one of the most beautiful warblers, and you did well capturing him lower than usual. Excellent exposure under beautifully defused light. I don't mind the busy habitat, but I do see the absence of fine feather detail Isaac is referring to.
Geoffrey
http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu
This is the how you usually see warblers. The pose is nice and i like all the green.
Thanks guys. I see ample feather detail in the RAW file and in the processed TIFF. This seems to be one of those cases where it seems to lose something when I convert to jpeg and post to BPN. Perhaps I wasn't aggressive enough in the final sharpening. I do recall that there was some noise on the breast, from the high ISO, so I may have run a bit of light NR there -- this was done over a year ago so I don't remember exactly what I did. In any event, here's a repost with a bit more aggressive sharpening and hopefully a little more detail when uploaded.
ps. looking at the Preview of the RP, it still lacks some of the sharp detail, and some vibrance, that I see in the final jpeg on my screen prior to posting.
I am not sure what is happening Bill but as you mentioned the repost is not showing the same fine feather details that your shots usually show.
Nice image Bill. I don't mind the busy BG since he stands out so well against it and it's often how we see this species in the field. I agree the feathers lack detail.
Beautiful subject and I don't mind the natural environment too much but as mentioned the bird is not ultra sharp. Looks like a little too big of crop to me but not sure. I would jump at the chance to shoot one of these birds someday. Well done
This is a very nice frame of a difficult subject. Perhaps the density of the BLACKs and the intensity of the ORANGEs is hiding the FFD ... You might try reducing the Luminosity of the ORANGE channel during the RAW conversion ...
with love, artie
Thanks guys. I appreciate the tip, Artie; worth a try.
