Striped Pipit - Chuffed at getting close to this species

[Richard Flack]

Location: Kololo Private Game Reserve, Waterberg, South Africa
Date taken: 09 August 2011
Photo details:
Canon EOS 7D
400mm f2.8
ISO 250
Shutter speed 1/1000
F-stop 2.8
Exposure bias +0.3


Not the most creative of shots but I kinda like the leaf litter background and that I actually got close to this little guy. Comments are welcome.

[gail bisson]

Hi Richard,
I don't recall ever seeing one of these pipits posted before.
Well done on getting close.
I would do some NR on the BG or some very light Gaussian blur to the BG. The colors within the BG are very nice and definitely worth working on.
I wish you had not been so low so that we could see the feet and tail.
I am wondering why the low ISO and big aperture? The 7D is fine up to ISO 800,
Gail
What is the grey disc like object near the eye? ( where the human equivalent of an ear would be)

[Iain Barker]

Hi Richard

I really like this image. I like the way the perch colour matches the background with both complimenting the bird.
The grey objects on the birds head the Gail mentions look like ticks to me. WDYT?

[Satish Ranadive]

Beautiful image. Nice pose, perch, lights and composition.Rest has been mentioned by Gail.

Regards,
Satish.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Richard, I like the angled pose, and yes, the colours of the BG work well together. I would smoothen out the BG with some NR, I believe it will make a world of difference to the overall image.

[Richard Flack]

Thanks so much for the comments everyone! Please excuse my inexperience but what is NR?
Gail, what ISO and aperture would you have used? (I realize that I could have gone with a smaller aperture)
And yes, the item by the eye is a tick.

[Ivan Ellison]

Richard, nice habitat shot of a bird I have not seen before- never been to SA. Colours are nice , the bg compliments the bird. A slight turn of the birds head away from you to its right would be lovely. I am no expert in processing shots and post on here to learn from others. The NR referred to is noise reduction. All digital images have some noise, which increases as you increase the ISO. It shouldn't be a problem at ISO 250 with your gear. To improve the BG and reduce the effects of noise I run the blur tool over the bg and parts of the pic affected by the noise. Obviously keep it off the bird. Zoom in on the bird to 200% or more and use a small brush- low pixel count-around the birds edges, then zoom out and use a bigger brush(pixel count) over the rest of the bg, I think you will see a big improvement in your pics. I will let Gail answer your question about f stop/ISO. Good luck and keep posting.

[Richard Flack]

Thanks so much Ivan. I really appreciate you taking the time. Followed your tips and it works well, thank you. Have an awesome day!