White-eared Honeyeater (Lichenostomus leucotis)

[Charlie Schwencke]

Another one from the outing to my little Bush Dam during a very hot 40C plus day. I just hate it when they land to close, I thought I had it all in frame
This perch was in place for the smaller Silver eyes that are at the dam as well which I was hoping to get a photo of.
I know a lot will not like the tiny piece of tail missing but I still really like this image.
I thought about trying to add canvass but have no idea how that could even be done and then it's like a doctored photo..

All comments still most welcome.

Name: White-eared Honeyeater (Lichenostomus leucotis)
Location: Bush Dam Whipsick area, VIC 06/01/2012)
Gear: Pentax K200D and Sigma 150-500mm @ F6.3 1/320 ISO500 500mm Tripod, Hide.
PP:ACR/CS5, shadows, contrast, sharpen, FF.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I like the image very much, I would suggest a doctored photo can still be a very good photo so if you have more images I would certainly add a little canvas to the bottom and take the tip of the tail from a similar image and place it in this image at the appropriate point. OK you couldn't enter it in a competition but you would still have a great shot and one that lacked the criticism you first identified. Whilst the background is not unduly noisy I would suggest a round of NR would help.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Beautiful bird, and the "brushstroke" BG is very pretty! Well exposed, details look good (but look sharper on the bird's back and side...a small additional rould of USM on the face would work well.) As for the tail, it is unfortunate that it is clipped, but since you like the image enough to keep it I would suggest cutting it more from the right...an extremity almost always looks better squarely cut rather than slightly clipped. Even better would be to use your zoom capabilities to its full capability and zoom out as the bottom is too tight too (for the foot), but you know that

[Marina Scarr]

Your BG is absolutely lovely in this image. You have a nice HA on your bird and good details. Wish you had zoomed out with your lens so that you would have more room.

[Arthur Morris]

Charlie, Welcome to BPN. Where do you live? Great bird and sweet background. Good job with the EXP and SH. Good suggestion by Marina: zoom wider. Pointing the lens down a bit after focusing would have been even better. Don't blame the bird; blame the operator!

[Satish Ranadive]

Charlie:
Excellent image.Love the pose,nice colors,sharpness and beautiful backdrop.
Agree about head,could take some sharpening.

Regards,
Satish.

[PhilCook]

Think yourself lucky you have a zoom lens Charlie, fixed focal lengths give no option when birds come in too close.

The White-eared are always a treat to find, and generally quite shy, the dam on a hot day is working nicely it seems. Image is nicely sharp and well controlled light , but I would run a little more sharpening ion the head area if you are familiar on how to do this.

Doctoring an image is personal choice, I generally dont like to do it unless........it is a very good image in general, and worth tinkering with a bit further...this image is overall very good, so I reckon a bit of hocus pocus focus may be warranted.

[Charlie Schwencke]

Thanks everyone, I had a friend play with the image as I'm a real novice with photoshop I'm not even sure how to do the sharpening just on the head??

But here is doctored image.

[Arthur Morris]

Your friend did well but for putting a little notch in the tail. That is easy to repair. And I like the fact that he zoomed out. I would recommend that you get yourself a copy of Digital Basics, a PDF that is sent via e-mail. It contains my complete digital workflow, dozens of great Photoshop tips and techniques, all of my keyboard shortcuts, and tons more.

[PhilCook]

Yea...a bit of digital hocus pocus has made this an obvious improvement Charlie, one minor fault on the tail, but the head now looks equally sharp as the body...very cool !