Goldfinch In The Wild

[Randall Farhy]

This little fella started munching out on seeds in a shrub on the shore of Farrington Lake as the light was fading. I took quite a few shots (30ish) as I knew there would be many wasted due to his fast movements and hand holding a long lens at less than ideal SS in an awkward position. Fill flash used on HSS. Camera 7D; 400mm F 5.6 HH, Flash: 600EXRT in manual mode. SS 1/640, F 5.6, ISO 800. 24% crop (76% frame intact) While I am fairly pleased with the results, I feel there are some issues with some of the elements in the shrub, such as the bird droppings on the leaf to the left and the two blonde oof branches. I want to leave the falling seed bits as I feel they add to the context. My PS skills are minimal and am wondering if there is a way to remove or hide the elements mentioned, or even if they are of concern? The subject has room to sharpen, I'm just leery of overdoing it. Thanks for your thoughts and critiques/adjustments.

[David Kenny]

Randall,

The detail on the bird is very good - looks sharp to me. I think you did a great job of showing the goldfinch in its natural environment. As far as the droppings go I would leave it. It seems like that may be a tricky area to clone out ( i am not that good in post). The two issues I have are it looks like you may have added too much vignetting and the pose of the bird (I know its out of your control). Was the bird centered in the frame or did you crop it that way?

- Dave

[Randall Farhy]

Hi Dave- thanks for your comments. I always struggle with what to leave and what should be removed. I love the images that others post of birds on twigs in a set up shot, but always lean toward the environment shots myself. The subject was somewhat centered but more to the right of the frame, cropping took some off the top a little of the bottom and some off of the left. I suppose I could get away with spinning the image in the frame a little bit to present a different angle on his pose, hadn't tried that yet.

[Diane Miller]

Nice job in low light and the flash looks very natural. Trying to remove those elements is more than I would try for, but often the selections made with the Control Points in Nik's Viveza can be freaky good, even with very OOF elements. The adjustments will slop over to other areas (the selections are very soft, similar to Luminosity Masks) and you need to set other control points in the areas you don't want affected, with the default settings, to take care of that.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Sweet Winter-clothed Goldfinch! I love the environment and pose... and the mess on his face too! A couple comments on "stuff".... The red leaf pointing into the bird's head is distracting.... and, for number 2 comment..... the spent buds and red leaf that seem to be "growing" from the goldfinch's "underside" look a bit odd here.... I do understand that it is part of the environment, but since they are rather in-focus, they seem to detract from the subtle beauty of the Finch.