Eastern kingbird

[Richard Stern]

It has been a while since I posted anything here at BPN, although I have been lurking and hopefully learning. This bird had just returned to a local marsh after northward migration. Taken with Nikon D7100 and Tamron 150-600, hand-held at 550mm.. Manual exp., 1/1600, f6.3, ISO 1600, processed in LR5.7 with moderate crop, sharpening and curves, then nr with Noise Ninja. A small branch under the bird cloned out. Thanks for looking, and comments appreciated.

Richard

[John Robinson]

Nice picture Richard and a goodexpression on the bird. You have the right camera anyway !!
Cheers
JohnR

[gail bisson]

Hi Richard,
Lots to like in this image.
Great BG with nice color, a perfect HA and a nice simple diagonal perch.
I see a lot of noise/pixellation in the head feathers and the coverts (back area).
Did you have to raise the exposure in PP?
In any case I would rework those areas with a touch of carefully applied NR to maintain detail.
Since you cloned out one branch already I would clone out the little bit of side branch at the top. It is OOF and doesn't add much for me.
Looking forward to more from you!
Gail

[Alison McCoy]

Beautiful image. I like it a lot. Tricking with the dark feathers around the eye to have good detail there. Nicely done.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Richard, I like the angled pose here, together with the diagonal perch. Nice clean BG, and agree on see the noise on the wings.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Lots of helpful suggestions above. :)
lovely bird and photo
keep up the great work mate!

[Andreas Liedmann]

Nice clean image Richard from the aesthetic POV , technical issues already covered by others in which i agree .
TFS Andreas

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the pose, angled perch and clean BG. I agree with Gail's critique and would like to see a repost addressing the issues. Nice image Richard.

[Richard Stern]

I had quite a hard time balancing noise vs. sharpness, and it might have been better with less of a crop - but then I think the bird would have looked too small in the frame. Hope people think it's an improvement.

Richard