Double-barred finches

[John Cooper]

This pair of finches were attraced to millet-seed. The perch is flowering Barrie-Range wattle found in the dry-inland of Australia. The flowers are unusually large and are deep golden-yellow.

I was wondering if the talkative one here was trying to explain his crooked chest-bar

EOS 7D, EF 100-400mm @ 275mm, ISO 200, 1/1000 F7.1, Hide, Tripod with gimbal head.
Yellow flowers desaturated by 20%.

[Don Nelson]

I like these birds and you seem to have a lot of them. Are they common? I especially like this most recent perch with these birds.
If this were mine, I'd sharpen them a bit more, and put a little black into the yellow (which seems just a tad hot for me) to bring out the details (selective color adjustment layer, yellows-> black increased to taste).
How do you like this?

[arash_hazeghi]

very nice, I like the pose and colors, I like the sharpness in Don's post but both too are contrasty, if you look at histogram you can see that both ends are clipped (blocked blacks and blow red channel) this happens when RAW is converted with too much contrast or if the light is very harsh which doesn't appear to be the case here. There is something in your workflow that causes this, I hope you can figure out :)

[David Salem]

Another great shot of this species John. Nice singing pose and perfect body and HAs.Didnt notice the flowers covering the bird until the second look so it not an issue IMO. Exposed well and beautiful colors. Well done
Dons handy work really made a big difference in this shot. Adding the blacks and sharpening added to a great capture.

[Don Nelson]

Arash
Its pervasive on all channels -- here's the breakout of the OP jpeg: only Green at bright end is possibly not blown. I wonder if he increased contrast on the raw conversion without checking?

[Karl Egressy]

It is so cute, very nice interaction captured, John.

[Satish Ranadive]

John:
Excellent image of finches on lovely perch.Nice pose,colors and sharpness.

Regards,
Satish.

[arash_hazeghi]

red is totally blown and all three are clipped at the low end. I blame RAW conversion.

[PhilCook]

Any slight flaws in techs aside....this is a great shot John, loving the interaction { and you may be right about what's being discussed between them lol } Loving the Wattle flowers too...very Ozzie { wipes a fly from the corner of his eye as he writes lol { only an Aussie will understand that joke hehehe} I think a slight sharpen improves, but confess to being very confused about what's acceptable and whats' not ?....I struggle with varying thoughts on sharpening. But I think Don's repost has a tad more "pop"

[John Cooper]

Thank you all your comments.
Yes this image has been a problem one for me. It was taken at 9:30am in bright sunshine. As indicated by the high SS for an ISO 200 the yellow flowers were intense. In RAW conversion +0.2 exposure only was made which showed no clipping. No other adjustments were made in RAW and the image was taken into PS6 for final adjustments. I will post another image shortly where I've tried to address the contrast and saturation problem. Thanks again for your suggestions, much appreciated.

[Greg Oakley]

Awesome image John - super comp and poses. I dont think i have ever seen DB Finches on wattle like this - good stuff!
cheers Greg

[John Cooper]

For this repost I've given a further 15% desaturation to the yellow flowers (maybe too much), reduced contrast to some extent and feel it shows some improvement over the original post. Be grateful for your thoughts.

[PhilCook]

But but but...Wattle flowers are very bright and vividly colorful, they almost glow naturally....bring back the saturation I say

[Randy Stout]

John:

I like the overall image a lot, fun interaction and wild flowers. I agree about too much contrast in the original, but I think you overshot in your pane #12 shot, just a bit flat. So, I would say a bit more tweaking , but getting close, and a shot which is worth the time!

Cheers

Randy

[Nick Palmieri]

PP aside, I love the interaction of these guys. Very neat looking birds!

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Excellent setup, John. Love the interaction between the two. Bg and perch, both nice. PP issues mentioned and mostly fixed.

[Bill Dix]

Boy, are you getting your money's worth out of these guys. Another great image, contrast issues aside. Repost in pane #12 helps a lot to my eye.

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image John! I like the interaction, colourful perch, composition and sweet BG. I like pane #12 but would bring back a little of the yellow saturation on the flowers.

[arash_hazeghi]

which program do you use for RAW conversion?

[Marina Scarr]

The interaction and setting here are absolutely killer!!! Agree on your birds needing more sharpening and like the sharpening in Don's RP. Agree there is a lot of contrast in this capture, but this seems to be your style and what your eye likes. That said, I think you could get more details in your blacks and whites if you started over in RAW. This image is absolutely worth working on.

[Don Nelson]

A little too much desaturation. But you are still clipping the blue channel - can you adjust contrast in your RAW program while watching a RGB histogram? what are you using?

[John Cooper]

which program do you use for RAW conversion?

I 'm using PS6 ACR

[John Cooper]

A little too much desaturation. But you are still clipping the blue channel - can you adjust contrast in your RAW program while watching a RGB histogram? what are you using?

Thanks Don - yes i need to get back to basics and observe changes in the histogram.

[John Cooper]

Boy, are you getting your money's worth out of these guys. Another great image, contrast issues aside. Repost in pane #12 helps a lot to my eye.

Thanks bill - yes I'm very grateful for all the suggestions made here. Easy to get stuck with bad habits until someone kindly points you in the right direction.

[Shawn Zierman]

Such a riot this image! A visual feast for the eyes.
I've also enjoyed the dialogue that's followed the OP and think it eximplifies
why this is such a great avian photography forum. My commendations to you
for being open to such great feedback.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, always good to have a double of any species in an image, and both interacting nicely. Great advice from above, and Don's repost in pane #2 does it for me.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

What a sweet image. I love the interaction and do like the increase in sharpening. That perch is sweet too