Posing Stonechat

[shane shacaluga]

Stonechats usually perch out in the open where they spend long periods of time gazing into the sky waiting for insects to fly past. They take off vertically and then actively chase their prey and return to their resting spot

I was still setting up my gear in the car and spotted this one in the distance resting on a far from ideal metal post. Unsure as to where in the car my teleconvertor was so took a few shots. It was quite small in the frame but i wanted to check how much detail the lens and sensor managed to capture. Doesn't look to bad at least to me

Resting on car window. Cropped (a lot) and then brightened eye area. There was a bit of white in the neck that was showing 230 on histogram but no details so i cloned a bit from another area where detail was present so it did not look blown. Slight sharpening

D800e
600f4 VR
1/2500
f4
ISO 400

[John Robinson]

Hi Shane
Its notoriously hard to get the neck right on these. Under expose and you loose the blacks. My in camera Dynamic adjustement in effects works wonders. You did well with this one though.
John

[William Dickson]

Hi Shane. Lovely image of a stonechat, I love photographing these birds. You captured this one well, great colours and detail on the bird and I like the rusty old post which blends well with the BG. Good work

Will

[christopher galeski]

nice one,like the BG,some nice detail,like the rusty perch,light looks like it was harsh,but you handled it well.TFS.

[shane shacaluga]

Thanks for your comments

[Daniel Cadieux]

You did best you could in the harsh light. Good comp and profile pose, but I agree the perch is less than ideal IMO. Detail is looking a bit crunchy due to big crop and sharpening combo...still OK if as big a crop you mention.