Tree Sparrow

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm with 1.4
f/6.3
1/1000
ISO 1250

This is one from a set up I made yesterday morning. I was getting the usual finches and tits, but never expected this guy to turn up. This is one of our rarer sparrows.

Will

[John Robinson]

Great little birds they are too Will. No nits from me except perhaps positioning of the bird. Just my take but I would like itb with more canvas on the left and some off the top. In retrospect maybe tone down the green leaves on the left. Bird spot on.
Cheers
John

[adrian dancy]

Pretty much agree with John. It looks like you may have blown the perch and a bit of the bird's collar?

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments John. I will revisit the file. Hi Adrian, the whites don't look blown on my screen, but, I am still trying to get to grips with this iMac I am awaiting delivery of calibration equipment, so hopefully that will solve the issues.

Will

[Jonathan Ashton]

Love the pose absolutely beautiful colours and details, I like the background, I may on reflection consider desaturating the leaves just a little - nothing wrong with them but I think a little desaturation will make them more incidental.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that John, I forgot to mention to John Robinson, The reason for the crop John, there was an unsightly tree on the LHS.

Will

[christopher galeski]

Agree with others comments,nice details and pose.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, a busy BKG but I feel in this instance the vibrancy of the leaves adds to the dark, shadowy backdrop, although as a set-up I feel you could have achieved a more pleasing backdrop like Jonathan's Bullfinch/Blue Tit. Keeping it simple Will will be more attractive and show the subject off nicely. If you use this set-up again then I would look at the light patch above the subjects head, not idea and is fractionally distracting as it breaks the continuity I feel Will. Remember - you are controlling things and that is why with set-ups things should be almost 100%, any big issues simply comes back to bad/poor planning.

I do like the body angle and likewise HA here, perhaps a fraction more DoF? I would consider loosing about an inch off the top, just a fraction above the top leaf from the RH stem, it removes the dark blob and reduces the feeling of the subject slipping out of frame. As presented, for me, there is an in balance, too much dead space above. Central placement is OK, but yes, a fraction more to the LHS would be better. The branch/perch isn't blown, but there appears to be some colour replacement added within the light areas as there is no tonal range there, just a light colour????

Go straight to 1600 or higher Will, you want to have a good SS and the 1DX delivers and the image will be sharper too. Exposed correctly, you should not need any NR at 1600 or below, although there looks to be some applied here? How much of a crop Will, or is this FF?

TFS
Steve

[John Robinson]

Will
You menytion the tree on the left. Was it really that obtrusive. ? As a matter of interest--The plain BG is not my thing as you know but with this sort of photography it is much more difficult to plan a BG as some would think. The panoramic choice of where the birds might appear is one heck of a distance . In my case from the hide it covers about 10 metres according to how you have constructed the hide lens aperture. Mine is a moving piece of cloth.
Cheers
JohnR
Cheers
John

[Daniel Cadieux]

Pointing your lens abhout one inch left and one inch lower would have been ideal IMO, even if that means sacrificing the leaf at right. The bird looks great, nice and sharp. Looks like you may have used the burn tool on a brighter part of the perch? Looks greyed out in that spot.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the comments and advice, Hi Steve, all points noted, I never really expected the bird to land on this perch, which was further away from my desired set up. I had a better BG on that one. I have posted the original RAW. Hi John, you will see the branch I was talking about which ended up on the LHS, when I tried a different crop, on the attached original file. Hi Dan, points noted, yes I did use the burn tool on the perch.

Will

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, lovely looking sparrow with all those various colours, and you managed a lovely angled pose too. You have done extremely well with your choice of crop and result from your original file, and maybe taking a bit off the RHS will give you the feeling that the Sparrow is in the ROT's.

[William Dickson]

'I would consider loosing about an inch off the top, just a fraction above the top leaf from the RH stem, it removes the dark blob and reduces the feeling of the subject slipping out of frame'

Yes Steve, the crop sure does make a difference for the better