Female Cardinal
This was taken on a cloudy, wintery day, attracted by audio playback. I converted from RAW in Lightroom and adjusted levels. In Photoshop, I separated the foreground and background, sharpened the foreground, and softened the background.
Canon 7D II
500 mm F4 and 1.4x (700mm @ f5.6)
ISO 800
1/200 on tripod
Any feedback appreciated.
SD
A lovely bird on a very nice BG in wonderful soft light. There is some magenta cast you might want to play with. Most people will clean up bills, and I would do that here for the spot right at the tip.
Is it a crop? I wish there were a little more room under the tail. This would stand up to a vertical or squarish crop. I would at least remove enough on the left to get rid of the brighter spot in the corner.
Look forward to seeing more!
I just love watching these birds. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff.
Thanks Diane. Unfortunately, this isn't a crop and I have no room underneath. I will take a shot at cleaning up the bill, find a new crop and tackling the magenta cast. I'll repost after I see if anyone else has any suggested improvements.Originally Posted by Diane Miller
Hello Smon. This is such a cute little bird. I have to agree with the "Grasshopper" on all counts. I would certainly take a slice off the RHS. The "magenta cast" is the bane of my life, so I am quite happy to see some one else with this glitch. The BG is arty and nicely soft with that cast however. The feather detail is very good and the whites are good too! I would try my hand at adding some more canvas to the bottom.
Beautiful Smon...keep 'em coming!
One of my favorite birds. They were frequently in our yard where I grew up in Dallas, Texas. I especially like the color palette of this shot. The heavy work on it done by the bird, of course. But the gentle contrast with the background is pleasant, as well.
I'm likely wrong about this, as no one else has mentioned it. But is the focus around the bill a bit soft?
I'm eager to see more images from you.
Here's a repost of the original photo with the suggested tweaks...removed the magenta cast, recropped, and cleaned up the bill. Thanks for all the feedback.
Better. How did you remove the magenta? There's still quite a bit in the BG OOF branches, but maybe it's natural. I don't know what color the tail should be but still some there, too. And it may actually be red instead of magenta. It can be hard to color balance an image with a lot of pastel tones.
I used Photoshop to alter the colour balance, but going too far made the image green. The reality is that the Cardinal was in some maroon-coloured thorns, so most of the colour was natural.
Posting Permissions
