Pileated Woodpecker

[Wendy Kates]

Hi all,
This image was made with a Canon 7D, 300 f/4 lens with 1.4 extender: f 5.6, 1/640s, ISO 400. Originally it had several unattractive branches in the background, which I cloned out. I think there were a couple of branches in front of the bird as well, which lightened the feathers, so I used the burn tool to darken the feathers. Applied the dodge tool to the eye. Sharpened it in PS CS4. My main concern is that I used the center sensor to focus on the eye, which resulted in my not having room in the frame to include the entire tail. Advice about how to handle this issue with a large bird such as this, and any other comments, are welcome.
Wendy

[Steve Wasson]

Hi Wendy,
A lovely bird. To handle the focus issue you raise (and many other situations), enter the Custom Function IV menu and enable the rear button for auto focus. This allows you to "lock focus" by placing the central sensor over the eye, focus with the rear button, then release it and reframe your image. When you press the shutter button, it will not refocus.

[P-A. Fortin]

An interesting post from Artie's blog to which he refers almost on a daily basis regarding rear focus: http://www.birdsasart-blog.com/2011/...ocus-tutorial/

As for cutting the tail, I don't know if there is any crop to this image, but maybe going for a vertical shot would have helped?

[Wendy Kates]

Steve and P-A., thanks...this is really helpful. I'll work on setting up the custom function this weekend. P-A., I do agree that a vertical shot would have helped. (I did crop it horizontally, but not vertically.)

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Wendy, your attempts at removing the foreground elements are pretty obvious in the image so I have to say that they didn't work. You clipped the tail, unless I am mistaken, but since you said you cropped horizontally and not vertically I have to make that assumption. Conventional wisdom (with which I agree this time) says that woodpeckers on the sides of trees should be vertical images. I hope you get an opportunity to capture this bird again, with better angles all around, as it is a wonderful bird with echoes of the late, great, ivory-billed woodpecker.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Hi Wendy. I though I might mention that the blocking of the subject by vegetation, as is with this image, has no "fix" and should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately, since the offending material is often outside the depth of field, it can be difficult to see through the viewfinder, so checking out the scene without the viewfinder can help. However, if the blocking element is small, such a branch or two, it is possible to deal with it, with surprisingly good results, thanks to Photoshop CS5 and CS6 and what is called content-aware fills. In addition CA fills largely replace the clone-stamp tool with much faster and better results. IMO CA fills alone completely justifies the upgrade price. regards~Bill

[Marina Scarr]

Good advice above. You may well already have done this, but just in case...it helps to not get too close to your subject to. I try to begin by walk around my subject looking for that best position (opening) Had you stayed back farther and shot in vertical, the steep angle you created here could possibly have been greatly diminished and you may have been able to find a hole through which to photograph or at least captured a pleasing environmental capture, habitat and all.

[Faraaz Abdool]

Woodpeckers on backward-angled branches can work as horizontal images, however the clipped tail takes away from this image. The post work done on this photo is also visible - you can see it easily on the back of the bird. Agree with what Marina said about getting a window.

Also when you enable rear focus just make sure that the focus function on the shutter button is turned off!