Cedar Waxwing #2

[gail bisson]

Took this image the day after my previous cedar waxwing post.
This waxwing has the nice red markings on wing tips that I personally love.
Canon 1DX, 600mm and 1.4x
ISO 800 F5.6 SS 1/1000 6:30AM
Usual PP. Lightroom sliders, NR to BG, levels, no DE because it would sharpen the feather pattern too much, USM to JPEG at 0.3 pixels and 20%. Nothing cloned or added
Comp a bit tricky. I do have more room all around as this is a big crop of 40% leaving me with 60% FF. Any suggestions are appreciated re: comp,
Gail

[John Robinson]

Very nice eye contact and IQ on this Gail.Shows the "waxy" tips on the feathers very well too. Not had an invasion here for a long time now.
Johh

[Jim Crosswell]

Everything has come together perfectly on this image Gail! Great pose, perch, IQ, BG, exposure and composition.

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Spot on all around, Gail. Very nice feather detail on an otherwise extremely smooth bird. Beautiful early morning light.




Geoffrey

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Gail, before reading your intro, I could see the light in this image was way better than your previous post ( not that there was anything wrong with that post ) Good DOF throughout the image, the Waxwing is nice and sharp, and I do like the 'perch'. As perfect pose and HA you could ask for, and I feel your comp and placement are spot on. Not a shabby BG either. Well captured.

[Lorant Voros]

Very nice IQ and nice HA and magic light. Super nice BG, though I'd be tempted to clone the two brownish parts out of the upper corners. Well done.

[William Dickson]

Great capture Gail. Beautiful colours throughout. The bird gave you a great pose and what a terrific perch. Looking good.

Will

[Daniel Cadieux]

Great light, perfect head turn, and the perch looks super too. You cropped it just right IMO. Only the top left corner could use some tweaking IMO - perhaps filling in with a 30-40% opacity clone stamp taken from surrounding greens.

[christopher galeski]

nice one Gail,like the perch and pose,nice colors and BG,agree with Daniel about top left corner.TFS.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Would it be possible to have a vertical crop?
If you have more room below, that may be feasible with the beautiful pine tree perch.
Really like the pose, the light too.
TFS

[adrian dancy]

The composition looks fine to me and all else covered above. A very nice image indeed. Your bird has slightly raised feathers which is fortunate because when these birds pull the feathers they take on a very smooth appearance with no micro shadows
Forgive my ignorance but what is DE?

[gail bisson]

Adrian- DE means Detail Extractor which is a plug-in within NIK EFEX. It really improves detail but must be used very gently ie at 1 or 2 %.
Akos- I do have lots more of the tree but I felt it made the picture too bottom heavy because the tree was full of pine cones.
Thanks to all for your comments and advice.

[Alan Murphy]

Awesome image Gail. I too see a strong vertical.