Striated Thornbill

5D4 70-200III 2.0III HH
1/1000 f5.6 iso1250
Manual

Cropped, S&H, NR to BG toned down a couple of bright patches in BG PS2020

What a little beauty. Sharp right where it needs to be and nice soft light. Only wish the above branches weren't there. Like it as is, though and envy you such wonderful subjects (Go Australia)... TFS

I have to agree this is one cute little bird, well detailed and lovely subtle colouration.....maybe a little more DOF would have been beneficial, but I do like the image as presented.

Hi Colin. One of your best for me. Lovely details, colours and feather detail. More of a head turn towards you would be my only nitpic. I would also crop some of the branch. Stay safe.

Sweet little bird, nice singing pose. Great detail where it counts, although a bit more DOF wouldn't have hurt. I guess you weren't working with a lot of light. I like it as presented, but could imagine a crop to pano taking out some of the top branches.

Cool looking little bird. I like the framing and that open mouth. I don't mind the branches they don't intersect the head.

Hi Colin ... sweet little bird . Perch is what it is ... and I think you would have preferred a cleaner BG .
Surprised to read the other comments about the IQ ... not sure what details others see , looks soft to me apart from some very prominent feather structure . Take a look at the rest of the bird and the perch close to the bird ... all very soft and the IQ is poor . Look at that eye ... no sharpness or detail .

Sorry for sounding harsh , just try to be honest .... what I can see on my screen .

TFS Andreas

Thanks all for taking the time to comment.
Andreas, I look forward to you posting an image of your own so I can see what I should be striving for.
So far I can only find one early penguin shot from you, unless I haven't used search correctly.

Hi Collin,
I like this little fellow, I am fine with both framing and HA, nice open beak. I have to agree with Andreas, the IQ is visibly poor. Please don't take it personally. BPN is supposed to be a solid critique form not a fan club, not a place for "great shot mate comments" for that there is facebook and instagram where every shot is sharp and great.... If we want to just say great shot mate we might as well close down this site because FB is much better at that.... you get the point :) without critique one never improves and keeps making the same errors over and over

the image seems to have very heavy noise reduction that has given it a paintary look. It has been sharpened too much but it is not sharp. If in doubt ask Arite ;) I don't know if this is again one of those huge crops or what but it isn't working for me. The BG seems to have been blurred in photoshop and the border between the back of the bird and the BG looks very funny, it looks almost like a cut and paste effect and there is also a blur halo around the bird If you want my honest opinion you should go back try another day, or try to get closer use a blind etc. I know the 5D4 can do much better than this so there is a problem somewhere.

hope this helps

Thanks Ari, nothing taken personally, I am keen to get significantly better and appreciate the challenge. I am a very opportunistic photographer without time to set up hides so even by my standards I have a very high failure rate, you should see what I throw out!!