Red-browed Finch

[PhilCook]

A little soft sadly, but this is the only one that came out with a reasonable head turn

Another shot from an old disued dam not far from home in 38 deg heat. There were quite a few of these strikingly colored birds coming in for a drink and wash, but most were down at the waters edge well below camera level. Stuck a couple of tall sticks in the mud in hope of some birds landing on them, a few decided that was a good lookout spot and perched briefly before plummeting down to the waters edge.


Canon7D + 500 f4 + 1.4 X TC.....700mm, f7.1, 1/125, ISO 200, slight crop, slight selective sharpen, noise reduction to backdrop, cloned out one needle leaf on the underbelly....tripod mounted using a bit of camo netting to conceal myself within a bush

[Frank Schauf]

Beautiful and colorful image. Sharp and well composed.

[Satish Ranadive]

Phil:
Great and quick set up.Excellent image.Very nice composition.
I like the softness in the image,sharpness spot on,not too much,nice colors and lovely BG. Love it.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Phil, I thought this was a good enough image to add that sharpening that you felt was lacking. I added sharpening to the finch, and ran a multiply blending mode at 50% to the whole image, as I wanted to tone down the BG a touch. Increasing your ISO would have given you more ss too.

I only added a small amount of sharpening to the finch, so I feel you were nearly there.

[Don Nelson]

I agree with Stuart and had already done the same thing to your image before scrolling down. Nice repost Stuart!
Good head angle and the reed adds an interesting perch.

[wendell westfall]

I ordinarily would not like such a busy perch, but this one is very attractive and sets off the bird nicely.

[David Salem]

Beautiful shot of this little bird. Great color and exposed well. Like the perch and the smooth BG. As you mentioned it is a little soft but Stuarts re-post made a big difference in an already nice shot. Well done.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

I liked the pose, colors, perch and BG. Stuart's repost has nice sharpening and has tackled some issues with the image.

Higher ISO and higher SS would have been better. I also suspect that the critical focus was not the bird. Looks like you had little time. Good job nabbing it before it flew away.

[PhilCook]

Repost has made a big difference for the better, although I do find the plumage looks a little coarse now, but has a lot more " pop " now, thanks Stuart. I really must examine PS techniques more than I do, I'm embarrassingly naive with it all.


I deliberately kept ISO low, and consequently shutter speed to minimise noise I constantly seem to get with my 7D. On this particular day the noise factor was frustrating....could that possibly be due to being a very hot day ?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Excellent colours, BG, great looking bird, and way to go improvising the perch setup. I do wish you had pointed your lens about an inch more to the right for the comp (or crop to that effect). When sharpening the image I would not do so to the very sharp "leaf" skimming the belly...it just seems sharper than everything else so that would minimize that. Loving your Aussie birds Phil...keep them coming!!

[PhilCook]

Excellent colours, BG, great looking bird, and way to go improvising the perch setup. I do wish you had pointed your lens about an inch more to the right for the comp (or crop to that effect). When sharpening the image I would not do so to the very sharp "leaf" skimming the belly...it just seems sharper than everything else so that would minimize that. Loving your Aussie birds Phil...keep them coming!!

Cheers Daniel, I see what you mean about the leaf under the belly, I actually selectivley sharpened that one leaf along with the bird which is probably why it stands out a bit too much....leaning all the time, thanks folks

[John Cooper]

Hi Phil, Glad to see you caught up with the Red-browed finch. A perch at water holes often comes to fruition and your selected perch here makes a nice composition.
Stuart's bit of sharpening and reducing overall brightness has made a big difference. Very nice image of this colourful finch. I agree with Daniel that cropping a bit from the left would strengthen the composition.
I afraid when the temperature gets over 30 degrees I hibernate inside, usually to my PC for some PP, so I admire your dedication getting out in the 38 degree heat - but it does pay off.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice picture, Phil. I like the pose background and perch. I was wondering about running a round of sharpening on the bird when I noticed that it was done already by Stuart.
Now it looks perfect.

[Greg Oakley]

Lovely shot Phil - and Stuart's repost is awesome! Great pose and the Sheoak perch is a cracker,
cheers Greg

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, perch, BG and repost by Stuart. I am enjoying the variety of Finches that you are posting. Well done Phil!