Male Cardinal

[Barry Ekstrand]

Male Cardinal, photographed in the brush at the Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR a couple of weeks ago.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 500 mm f4L IS II
ISO 1600, f 5.6, 1/8000 sec
PP done in Lightroom and Photoshop, NR on the background with Neat Image

All comments appreciated.

Barry

[Barry Ekstrand]

I can't figure out how to edit my original post, so just adding this:

Forgot to add that I also had the EF 1.4x III teleconverter on as well, so this was at 700 mm.

[keith mitchell]

Barry that's a cracking bird that looks very neat and sharp, nice b/g to finish.

Keith.

[gail bisson]

Lovely image.
Great light and great head turn.
I wish you had traded shutter speed for DOF to get the branch completely in focus. The DOF on the bird is fine though so you got away with it!
if this isn't a big crop then a vertical would look excellent as well.
Gail

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very nice bird and look-back pose. good light and clean BG. TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, a vertical would be nice too, but the BG branches make this work nicely as presented. Nice look-back pose. Sharp. Some of the reds look hot and possibly clipped (especially the face)...you can try adding some cyan to the reds to see if those can be tamed while still looking natural.

[Raybel Robles]

Lovely over the shoulder look. I will leave the crop as it is, the BG branches are very nice and add interest to the image. In my monitor at work the reds don't look clipped. I agree a bit more DOF for the branches would had been perfect, but is not a big deal. Still a beautiful image!