Defense of Family - Ovenbird

[Cal Walters]

Would love the groups POV on these shots. While walking in the parks of southern Ohio over the 4th weekend, I came across an Ovenbird! Turns out there were 3 of them and the parents got quite defensive as junior fled. The male perched and drew my attention while the female did a version of the 'look here, I can't fly' thing. The day was overcast, but the dappled light of the forest made a nice backdrop. In the lower image I opened up the exposure by 1/2 stop. Otherwise, there is only a small crop and +4 saturation and -6 Black and the auto set +25 sharpening in Digital Camera Raw. (FYI: I used a quick stitch app to put them together and I think that is making it softer than the original in my preview. I'll adjust based on comments and repost as a single.)

I like the moodiness of the darker image, but the pop on the bird. If I just lightened the bird by .5 stop, would that be over the line for contests? I've never considered entering a photo in anything, but this one gets me excited by the potential. (Maybe its because it's an ovenbird and we rarely see them!) All thoughts welcome.


Deets:
Canon 7D Mk II
Canon EF 100-400mm Mk II w/ 1.4x (560mm)
f/8
ISO 2500
1/80 sec
0 EC
Spot Metering

Best,
Cal

[Svante Larsson]

I really like the artistic feeling of these images. I would try to lighten the bird a touch and darken the dappled backlight also a little bit (even though I am not sure if it will work). The birds looks a little bit soft and could possibly take a little stronger sharpening.

[Warren Spreng]

I agree with Svante that I like the BG in the darker image and like the bird in the lighter image. Selectively lighten the bird and darken the very brightest areas of the BG just a bit, then add a little more sharpening on the bird. I would also probably try to clone out that foreground OOF branch as that keeps drawing my eye away from the bird. Nice catch! I live in Southern OH and haven't seen one of these! What park were you visiting?

[Cal Walters]

Near Lake Hope - but in the Zaleski State Forest.

[Diane Miller]

A very nice image and I love the BG -- very artistic. And I like the lighter bird -- would be easy to selectively lighten the bird in PS, and hold the BG down. Do the best with both in raw conversion then combine in PS, for lowest noise and best tonal structure.

The bird does look a bit soft -- maybe going back to the original will be better.

Were you on a tripod? Even if so, a faster shutter speed may have been better, although in a dark forest I understand the limitations.

Would love to see a repost -- this one is worth some work!

Maybe someone can answer about contests -- they may have very different rules but should be spelled out.

[Warren Spreng]

Near Lake Hope - but in the Zaleski State Forest.

Beautiful area, haven't been there in years! With regards to contests, typically you just have to spell out any actual changes you did, typically as long as you aren't adding something that isn't really there you are OK but as Diane states, it depends upon the contest and the specific rules.

[Cal Walters]

Thanks all, working on a repost.

[Cal Walters]

Here is a re-post with some quick adjustments. I started with a brighter image and then sharpened the bird, added an adj layer to darken the background, partially removed the OOF branch running through the lower part of the image. Thoughts?

[Diane Miller]

Lovely! You might consider increasing the whites a bit more, to bring up the light spot in the BG -- it looks a little subdued where I'd expect it to be brighter -- but not blown out. Probably OK to do it globally but if it overdoes the bird, easy to mask it out there.

Great look from a cute bird!

[Warren Spreng]

Much better, and I agree with Diane to bring up the whites just a bit.

[Cal Walters]

OK, What do you think about this? I brightened the area behind the bird by .25 stops - any more and it gets blown out.

[Diane Miller]

The bird does look much sharper here. I see you've posted it in Avian so I'll comment there. It's coming along nicely but not yet where it could be, with a problem with the light area in the BG going gray.