Indigo Bunting
Photographed what I would like to call returning friend(s) at the exact same spot, same time of year for the past two years. Either he calls to me or I use audio. Within seconds, there they were flying to a favorite Cedar tree and or a small bush maybe 20 feet away they like to perch in and sing up a storm. Here dining on wild grass seeds. C&C welcome.
D4s, Nikon 500mm + 1.4 tc, 1/800s, f 7.1, ISO 1000, FF -1.7 EV, Gitzo tripod, Wimberley Gimbal head.
Geoffrey
Last edited by Geoffrey Montagu; 07-13-2015 at 11:48 AM.
You have done a nice job of capturing this Indigo Bunting amid the wild grasses. Your DOF was chosen wisely. The body position shows off the wonderful colors and the HA allows us to see a partial profile. The image seems a little bright to me, which washes out some of the wonderful colors of the Indigo Bunting.
Below I used a curve adjustment to bring down the tones, increased the contrast of the middle tones, and added a vignette to darken the field around the bird. See what you think....
Looks a bit bright to me too... like what Karen has done to attenuate the colors. Lovely capture and environment here.
www.mibirdingnetwork.com .... A place for bird and nature lovers in the Great Lakes area.
I like the grassy habitat, and I actually like the placement of the subject higher in the frame because you have carefully positioned the various grass end their ends down there. I like what Karen has done to the image. I only wish for a better head angle, but I do like the feeding behaviour that is very evident here.
Hi Geoffrey - Good suggestions above and rp by Karen. I agree with Daniel about the HA.
TFS,
Rachel
A vary nice feeding shot. Nice environment captured, along with the beautiful bird. Karen's tweaking helped the colors of the bird, but made the background green a little too intense. I don't mind the HA, since the bird is concentrating on his dinner and you can see the eye. I actually thought that more room at the top would be better since the bird is looking up, but it's hard to visualize without actually trying it -- so you and Daniel are probably right.
Hi Geoffrey, love the colours on this fellow, and great that you captured the moment of feeding. I always like a high placement, so this works for me, and Karen's repost has sorted the 'brightness'. Im sure you have plenty more of this opportunity.
Lovely bird, nicely photographed. I think Karen made an improvement to the processing. The greens (actually mostly yellows) may be a bit intense, but that's easy to address in Hue-Sat or Selective Color.
Excellent image. Great feeding behaviour. Superb details, Nice grasses, beautiful colors and composition.
Regards,
Satish.
Thanks Everyone for your comments and suggestions. Karen, thanks for taking the time to illustrate your suggestions. It seems a bit dark overall compared to what I saw in the field. I realize it's subjective and being a bright overcast I too wanted to tone it down initially. With everyones suggestions, including Diane's (Thanks for pointing out) to reduce yellows, here's my repost. In Selective Color - 26% Yellow, + 2% Black (bird only), Levels and increase contrast a tad.
Geoffrey
It looks good to me, but that's not knowing the bird. These differences could well be within the differences in monitors. Even with careful calibration and profiling, they can vary. It's important to not change the brightness after calibration, and variations in room lighting can affect our perception.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
