Colorful Kingbird

[Grace Scalzo]

Just revisited some images from a couple weeks ago and chose this one to work up. I reduced the saturation of the background a bit as I felt it competed with the subject. (These were yellow flowers blooming in a grassland) Otherwise, normal processing with a trim from the right and some poo removed from the perch. Whites are not hot and are full of detail in original, but I'm loosing them in sizing for web. Any tips on how to avoid this will be greatfully accepted.

1/1250, f10, ISO800
Canon 1Dmk4, 500 f4 + 2x tc + blubb from car as blind
Not a set up and no audio used.

Note the stray white feather on bird's head.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pose, perch, BG, colours, composition all look great. Good call on toning down the yellows. Personally I would remove the stray feather on the head as to me it distracts and competes with the subject's eye for attention. There is often a slight shift on the histogram when converting to sRGB for web posting...if the whites are already close to the edge it may be enough to push them beyond. Having said this, the whites look good to me from here...

[Sachin Saraf]

Grace, this is fabulous capture...exposure, Pose, Perch, BG, composition and sharpness looks excellent...I am fine with the stray feather.
I am no expert so no idea how to avoid blown out white in conversion but yes on my work monitor I see a patch of hot white on breast.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. I really like the pose and the perch. Very nice background and details.
Well done.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

Beautiful Grace. I really like the pose and the yellow bg. I might be tempted to work out the shadows just a teeny weeny if this were mine.

[gail bisson]

As always, your composition and the lines are lovely.
great perch and BG.
Whites look good except for one little spot.I too, have noticed the whites issue when converting but don't know why.
gail

[Karl Egressy]

Great pose, composition, detail and lovely background, Grace.
Just a note on the background colour; I would slightly decrease the saturation of the yellow, if it were mine but it is fine as is.

[Markus Jais]

Fantastic shot with great pose and an awesome BG.

Markus

[Lorant Voros]

Lovely composition, great pose, eye contact and fantastic BG. Beautifully exposed and sharp too. Top notch.

[Gen Benjamin]

As I have told you in person this is such a lovely image, beautiful light, well composed, wonderful detail in the feathers, beautiful perch and background. Love it. I do see a small hot spot in the whites so would be interested if any one is able to answer your question as how to avoid that when resizing. As far as the stray feather I don't find it distracting at all.
Gen

[dankearl]

Very nice, a bit less saturation in the BG for me, but another beautiful photo from you.

[Jack Breakfast]

It is obvious to me that the stray feather is a plus and not a minus! Lovely background also. I like this picture!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Sweet light and exposure looks perfect to me. Nicely composed against a nice bg on a nice perch.
I love the IQ, especially considering the 2x. Very lovely image.

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,nice pose, great BG,sharp.thanks.

[PhilCook]

Looking very similar to what we call a Restless Flycatcher over here.

Concur regarding the left hand side of the chest with hot whites, but lovely posture and detail...keep the stray feather, adds character

[Rachel Hollander]

Grace - another beautiful image with great pose, detail and bg. I hope someone can answer the question about the whites (my guess is that Roger might be the most likely).

TFS,
Rachel

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

way to go, Grace. everything done correctly here...adding the 2x TC, stopping down, the composition, positioning yourself, nailing the look back( and down) pose. Whites look perfect to me. Stunning portrait.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent pose details BG exp. A vert will also work nicely here