Acorn Woodpecker

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

In my last bird photo workshop I found this nice moss and lichen ladden perch. It took me less than 5 minutes to set it up and it took a minute before the first woodpeckers started to come
to investigate it as I put some rice in the bace of the trunck to lure the birds.

I did all my best not to blow the forecrown but it was simply impossible due to the harsh light we faced in the moment of exposure. I cloned a dark blob on the back of bird and darkened the bird´s pupil.

For this one I used

300f/4+1.4TC
1D4
Hand held
ISO 1000
SS 1/200sec
f/8

DPP and sharpening and resize in PS

Thanks for looking

JuanK

[Ian Wilson]

I am glad to learn that even experts have blown highlights sometimes. Nice work, love the perch. Cheers, Ian

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

I am glad to learn that even experts have blown highlights sometimes. Nice work, love the perch. Cheers, Ian

Ha ha ha!
Ian, I am not an expert but in order to get a decent exposure with this specie one has to know that if expose for the forehead, then the blacks will be lost and if one expose for the blacks then is the forehead that goes white and detailess. I have other images with much better exposure but I liked this perch! Thanks for your input!

JuanK

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the details, colors and the BG. good HA. You have to make sure you don't blow up the whites in the forehead and then pull up the blacks in post as needed. you should have no issues.

TFS

[christopher galeski]

nice capture,like the BG,perch and pose good.

[Andy Shepherd]

Lovely capture, Jaun. The perch looks great, as does the BG, you have some good detail in the blacks and as you mention the whites were tricky. The 300f4 is a super piece of kit and takes the 1.4TC very well indeed, I wouldn't be without mine.

[gail bisson]

Hi Juan,
Beautiful perch and excellent head angle.
The 1D MKIV has enough dynamic range to let you expose for the whites and bring the blacks up in PP. A bit scary to do at first, because when you look on the LCD you will think there is no way to get the detail out of the blacks but DPP and CS 5 or 6 will do the trick!
Gail

[Marina Scarr]

Good advice by all above. Super perch and pose. Nice to hear how you attracted it.

[Binu John]

Excellent shot, Juan! Lovely composition and perch! Agree about the blown out white feathers!

[David Salem]

I understand completely about the exposure challenges. I would have shot this with just a little blinkies on the forehead as I like to get some detail in the blacks at exposure. A small area of slightly hot whites is easier to recover IMO than the whole bird being dark and possibly introducing noise at the recovery stage. You cant have the whole white area blinking though, just a little bit. You were close.
The shot looks great and I like the pose, perch and the BG. Well done

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful shot, Juan Carlos. Love the pose and perch. Useful advice above.

[MiroslavMaric]

Like this close up, BG and position of the bird. You got eye contact too. However if in doubt between light and dark in most cases the light part has a priority so I tried to keep mandatory the right exposition of the lightest parts of the bird. Well done and TFS. Cheers! Miro

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Juan, the BKG works well with nice soft tones juxtapose to the perch which has character and is a nice feature to accompany the subject. Like the HA and nice detail in the plumage. Regarding the crown, you could also do the adjustment as a layer adjustment and mask. At f/8 I thought the feet might be all in focus, but having just shot something at the safe f/stop it's not always the case, although I might have liked a bit more SS being HH.


Like it.

TFS
Steve

[Karl Egressy]

You have a nice series of the Woodpeckers, Juan. One more great image.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Thanks every one for your kind comments.