Female RWBB

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Taken a couple of months ago with my belly on the ground. At the time, I had just figured out how much nicer the bg looked once I got to eye level with the subject. I was hoping to get more action out of her, but she didn't mind me much and just walked around until she decided it was time to go (a moment that I did not capture).

Nikon d300s | 500mm f/4 VR + 1.4x
700mm | 1/640 | f/6.3 | ISO 1600

Comments, critiques, and advice are all welcomed and appreciated. Specifically, I'm really looking on advice for sharpening for web (but all other recommendations are of course appreciated).

[Randy Stout]

Miguel:

Your belly crawling paid off with a very good shooting angle, which has helped downplay the mowed? background.

Well exposed. The coverts seem sharper than the head, so perhaps your plane of focus was there.

Nice comp.

Everyone has their own mix for sharpening. I use Photokit Sharpener, which is a three step process, with capture, creative sharpen, and finally a final sharpening once the final image size has been reached.

Artie has good sharpening info in his Digital Basics disc.

Yes, the head is away just a bit.

I often will cluck or make a soft noise to see if they will turn my way a bit.

Cheers

Randy

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Thanks for the input Randy. I actually just received Artie's "Art of Bird Photoraphy II" and from what I read on his site (here) it should include the "Digital Basics File" as a chapter. I look forward to reading it.

[Melissa Groo]

Great low angle, Miguel. Nice details, exposure and IQ. Wish I could see the feet and that the head were tilted our way a bit. But very nice portrait of this RWBB.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice low angle shot, Miguel. The green for- and background sets off the bird very nicely.

[Satish Ranadive]

Miguel,
Magnificent portrait.I like nice low angle,colors of bird and beautiful BG.

Regards,
Satish.

[Robert Holguin]

Very nice shot. Excellent low angle, wonderful background, and great details.
Well done.

[Ofer Levy]

Nice pose and low angle. BG a bit too bright for my taste.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent fieldcraft and I love the perspective you got...unusual for a RWB image, and highly effective. I like the curving lines of the subject. Well exposed and well composed. I don;t expect to see the feet when the subject is standing on grass so I am fine with that...but I agree a better HA would have may for a stronger image. The grass does look a bit bright, not in tonality, but rather in tone (almost neon). For this I like to go to "Selective Color" and choose the yellow channel, and from there add some cyan and/or reduce yellow to it.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Miguel, getting down and dirty works well here, thus creating a super perspective. I agree the body seems slightly sharper than the head - could be a touch of motion blur. You can try and selectively sharpen the head, in that way you are doing it in steps, until you see its improving to a stage, and backing off if it isnt working. With regards to the toning down of the BG, I agree with Dan to desaturate the yellows, and then I would run a multiply blending mode at around 50% opacity which should finish it off nicely.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll go ahead and try sharpening a bit at a time and seeing where that gets me. I'll also tone down the background a bit. Thanks again for the feedback!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Agree that it is a bit on the brighter side. And probably some motion blur. Would have been better to use a slightly higher SS to freeze that.

Very good IQ for that ISO. excellent choice of shooting angle. Keep it up.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Excellent fieldcraft and I love the perspective you got...unusual for a RWB image, and highly effective. I like the curving lines of the subject. Well exposed and well composed. I don;t expect to see the feet when the subject is standing on grass so I am fine with that...but I agree a better HA would have may for a stronger image. The grass does look a bit bright, not in tonality, but rather in tone (almost neon). For this I like to go to "Selective Color" and choose the yellow channel, and from there add some cyan and/or reduce yellow to it.

Hi all, thanks for the feedback. I went ahead and sharpened the head a bit more and removed (desaturated) some of the yellow and green from the bg. Let me know what you think.