Cactus Wren on Aguave

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi folks, Spent 2 days at Mary Jo Ballator's B&B in Ash Canyon, AZ this week, and this is one of many birds we found there, Elevation 5200'. Looking for your kind knowledgable critiques.Sun was real bright at that elevation, and Aguave spike & feet over exposed. Maybe need a bit more room? TIA . . . Gus :)

Olympus E-510
Zuiko 70-300
Aperture Priority . . F/5.6 1/400s
200 ISO
0.30 EV
center weighted average
554 mm equiv. Monopod
Auto WB

[Gus Hallgren]

Trying to remove second duplicate posting

[Nonda Surratt]

Gus I like it! Interesting pose, you have eye contact and a pleasing BG, you already mentioned the feet/plant.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

That sure is a BIF!! (you figure it out). I am impressed with the depth of field and the sharpness.

[Doug Brown]

I think you did a great job with your self-critique on this photo Gus. I might add that the BG seems a little noisy (a little surprising for ISO 200).

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Gus I like it The image is over sharpened Do like the interesting pose with the good head turn. Perhaps just a little more turn.

If you have the file prior to processing go ahead and post again so we can see the difference. Should look totally different !!!

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Al, I was sort of under the same opinion on sharpening. Here is the original, only cropped & resized to BPN maximum . . . No processing . . . looking forward to proper processing . . . Gus :)

[Doug Brown]

Here's a repost that selectively sharpens the bird. I toned down the perch and cloned out the OOF plant next to the perch. In a soft image, I think it's pretty important to sharpen only the bird, or else you get the BG noise seen in your original post. How do you like the repost?

[Gus Hallgren]

Doug, Great job, I learned a lot from what you did after Al pointed out my oversharpening the whole photo. The effect you accomplished was what I envisioned after reading your critiques . . . "Thanks for the picture that is worth a 1000 words". This is a great Forum . . .My appreciation to all the great folks at BPN . . Gus . . "At 84 not too old to learn."

[Alfred Forns]

Excellent work by Doug !!! Big difference in the feathers btw the point of focus seems to be on the shoulder That area appears a little sharper than the eye on the unsharp post !!!

[Gus Hallgren]

Al, you were right on the money as usual . . . Best . . . Gus