Stonechat

[Alan Douglas]

Hi from Nottingham UK

Being a relative newbie to Bird Photography I was pleased to create this image of a Stonechat.


Canon 40D
100-400 lens
FL 400mm
Raw
400 iso
1/250
F5.6
No flash

Thanks for looking any comments appreciated

King Regards
Alan Douglas

[Linda Robbins]

Hi Alan -

I like your image but it is a bit too dark, and if your ethics allow, I think it looks better without the single tall grass stem.

I lightened it using a Levels adjustment with the middle slider. To get rid of the grass stem and to smooth out one or two spots in the bg, I used a combination of the Patch Tool and some cloning. Lastly, I used a quick mask on just the bird and did a slight middle tone levels adjustment and a slight curves adjustment.

Look forward to more of your images, and I hope this helps.

___________________

Linda

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome Alan! Nice first post. I like the perch and pose. I would consider a vertical crop and tone down the bright part of the BG. Keep them coming.

[Alfred Forns]

Welcome Alan, Agree with suggestions and might add small birds in frame look best in one of the corners Would suggest moving this one down and right I like the mood and head turn very much !!!

[Maxis Gamez]

HI Alan and welcome,

I like the repost, but I wish it was a little darker. Overall the use of flash would of solve the dark areas in your image.

[Alan Douglas]

Thanks for the welcome and comments.

Linda, I like what you have done by getting rid of the stem. I could do with a tutorial on how to do that? I have Photoshop CS but not familiar with the patch tool.
Many thanks
Alan

[Hillebrand Breuker]

lovely light and nice composition. The stern has been mentioned, but I like the overall saturated feel more in the original

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Alan,

Big welcome to BPN!

Since taste is so subjective, I like the original as posted. Including the stem on the left.
The only thing I'd do is blur it a little bit.

You can find shot tutorials on how to do this in the Digital workflow Forum

Lovely background and colors and nice composition.

[Jody Melanson]

Nice image! I cloned out the branch, cloned the bright spots behind the Chat. I Selected the BG only and Saturated a bit. I used an Action called Paint with Light to lighten the bird itself. The great part about Photoshop is the same thing can be accomplished many different ways.

Hope you don't mind me editing it. :)

[Alan Douglas]

Thanks for the feedback Jody & Fabs.

No problem with the editing Jody it has opened up an area within my photography that I now need to work on and that is Photoshop!
I will check out the tutorials on Digital Workflow Fabs,

Many thanks
Alan