Red-breasted sapsucker

[Tyler Hartje]

A red-breasted sapsucker from March.
Details:
Canon 60D, 400mm f5.6
ISO 200, f/7.1, 1/400 sec, +0.7 exp, AV

[Diane Miller]

Hi Tyler, and welcome to BPN!!

A little more detail helps with critique -- tripod or handheld? Processing?? A big crop? Are you new to this sort of photography? Hop on over to the Introductions forum and check in!!

I really like the environment. A very nice exposure, but the bird may be just a little soft. Getting them sharp takes practice, and an acquired skill that I think of as luck.

Looking forward to more information here, and to seeing more of your work! And do comment on others' posts -- it's how we all learn.

[Tyler Hartje]

Hi Diane,

Thanks so much for the welcoming and for your feedback! I've been photographing birds for about a year and a half now, and landscapes for about two years. I had my camera set up on a monopod, and only did some light processing in Canon's Digital Photo Professional (highlights, saturation, and sharpening). This is about a 50% crop of the original raw file, which looks sharper than the resized version I posted here, but after reviewing it again it could probably use some more sharpening. What's the best way to resize my photos for posting here?

Thanks again,
Tyler

[Diane Miller]

Some people have commented that their photos look less sharp after posting here. I haven't seen that myself -- I process in and export from Lightroom -- just one step with a preset specific to the parameters needed here. I compare normal and high sharpening. If you don't use LR but do use Photoshop, I'd just use Save for Web -- it will do all the work for you once you specify the parameters. It will work directly from any file format, even a layered PS file. There are several sharpening parameters to choose from.

I upload directly rather than going through a web site. I've never been confident that some of the popular photo sites such as Flickr wouldn't do some resizing without telling you, but even so, it may not make a noticeable difference in a web-sized image.