Red Avadavat - Male

[supreet.sahoo]

It’s probably a known thing that bird photography needs patience. Infact if you are shooting in city outskirts where one has to have plenty of attributes to make good bird images like patience, knowledge of location and species and basic photography knowledge making ‘acceptable’ bird images is a very rewarding experience.

This spot was frequented a few times before we determined that a group of these finches visit it during early mornings. Last week, on one such morning, with just 1 image in mind we waited for 3 hrs before we could make some decent images and this to me is probably not the best (partly due to the distracting bg) but something I loved due to the double color layer made by water and distant paddy fields. Hope you guys like it.

7.1, 200, 0, 1/500 , 7d , 420mm

[gail bisson]

Hi Suprrey,
The bird is lovely and you have some nice light.I definitely agree about the nice layered BG.
There are several problems with this image though:
1. There are cloning artifacts visible throughout the image and these need to be fixed.
2. Since you have already done some cloning I would clone out that icky branch in the BG. It really hurts the image IMHO. Could you have moved your setup so that the branch had not been in the BG?
3.Since you waited 3 hours for this shot you had time to do your field work and I wish you had increased your ISO to get more DOF so that the bird was sharp right through to the tail.
4.There is a hazy OOF branch that crosses the perch. If this is not a big crop could you go to a vertical presentation?
I think this image can be improved with a bit of work and would love to see a repost,
Gail

[Raybel Robles]

I agree with Gail on her points. I also thing the bird its placed to low and to much into the right hand corner. I would had move it up a bit and a bit more to the middle.

[supreet.sahoo]

Thank you gail and Raybel,
Ill try my best to answer your points, one at a time :)


1. There are cloning artifacts visible throughout the image and these need to be fixed.


To start with, there is no cloning done on the image. i always try to keep as close to the real image as possible. Too much editing is not my forte. What you are referring to as artefacts are actually thin threads of spider web and dust which I did not clean before shooting the image. Adding a screenshot of the raw for clarity.

2. Since you have already done some cloning I would clone out that icky branch in the BG. It really hurts the image IMHO. Could you have moved your setup so that the branch had not been in the BG?
Agree with you on the branch, but it was a tricky situation. The birds choose from the natural perches and the most favourable ones sometimes have tricky bgs. Since these are natural environments we try not to disturb the bird as much as possible.

3.Since you waited 3 hours for this shot you had time to do your field work and I wish you had increased your ISO to get more DOF so that the bird was sharp right through to the tail.
Yes, I agree on this one and definitely something I will keep in mind for future images J
4.There is a hazy OOF branch that crosses the perch. If this is not a big crop could you go to a vertical presentation?
I think this image can be improved with a bit of work and would love to see a repost,
In my humble opinion I wasn’t too pleased with the vertical crop as it takes away everything from the image and makes nothing more than a mug shot. However I have posted the image with a vertical crop, let me know what you think.

[gail bisson]

Hi Supreet,
Firstly I apologize for thinking that those marks were cloning marks. However, it does not change my opinion that they are unsightly and need to be removed!
I hope you do not mind but I quickly edited your picture by removing all the branches and marks and I added a bit of canvas on the right hand side of the frame and took a bit off on the left and top.
I think your shot is greatly improved IMHO by doing this and you could make this even better because you can edit on the RAw file. I only have your JPEG to use.
Do you have LR or Photoshop?
Gail

[supreet.sahoo]

Hi Supreet,
Firstly I apologize for thinking that those marks were cloning marks. However, it does not change my opinion that they are unsightly and need to be removed!
I hope you do not mind but I quickly edited your picture by removing all the branches and marks and I added a bit of canvas on the right hand side of the frame and took a bit off on the left and top.
I think your shot is greatly improved IMHO by doing this and you could make this even better because you can edit on the RAw file. I only have your JPEG to use.
Do you have LR or Photoshop?
Gail

Looks way more presentable now. Thank you for taking the time out to work on this. I usually use PS to complete my images and tried some cloning after seeing your image but mine was really bad compared to what you have done here!! Would love to know how you managed to make such a perfect blend between the 2 bg colors. Thanks in advance

[Marina Scarr]

Good critique by Gail although I rather like the branches in the BG minus the smudges. I think it gives an artsy effect to the image and works well with the colors. THe branches also help to balance the image. You have a killer BG here and while I like Gail's RP, I find it would be more interesting with the OOF branches.

[gail bisson]

Hi Supreet,
I usually start off using the spot healing brush tool then clone in the area at ~ 50 % opacity. I work with a large soft brush when dealing with BG colors that bleed into one another. The key is to work big in this situation. If you clone in areas that are too small then it really shows up. Practice practice.
Gail