Worn Winter Willet on Rocks

[Patrick Sparkman]

Shot this in early February at La Jolla shores. The sun had set, but the colors of the bird and rock looked beautiful to me.

5DS R, HH 100-400II at 300mm, f5.6, 1/60, ISO 3200, Processed in DPP, Neat Image Noise reduction in Photoshop CC, slight crop for composition. All CC welcome.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice pose and details, great processing of high ISO. I find the BG a bit distracting though

TFS

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fantastic details on the face ans neck. Great job handholding with that low light and subsequent in-camera techs. Perfect head angle. I agree with Arash about the BG., but nicely done overall.

[Glenn Conlan]

Great details and at a slow shutter speed

[Patrick Sparkman]

Thanks for the comments. And thanks to Arash for the great technique and workflow using NeatImage to reduce noise while maintaining detail.

As for the rocks, I normally really want a very clean background. But in this case, I was using the 1-4 and the rocks were pretty close behind the bird. I liked it as a change, as the rocks are somewhat colored like the bird.

[Ihtisham Kabir]

Patrick, great image - beautiful! The bg does bother me a bit too but I was thinking - you might try lowering the blues on a few places in the bg - this might reduce the distraction factor. BTW, is there a pointer to the Arash workflow you mention? Thanks for sharing. Ihtisham

[Marina Scarr]

Your bird has nice details, and I like the fact that you can clearly see it's feet on that nice perch. I wonder what this image would have looked like as an environmental, small in teh frame image where the bird becomes part of the environment. I think it might have worked nicely b/c of the pleasing palette. Just a thought. The more I use the 100-400, the more I try to zoom out and try to look at things differently.

[John Robinson]

I think I agree with marina on this one.
I don't mind the bg too much and racking out may have blended it better.
Still a nice picture in my mind.
JohnR

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Patrick, excellent IQ for that high ISO, and I like the detail for such a slow ss. Good HA, and comp wise, adding a bit below wont harm the image, and just a personal note, adding more on the LHS to create a more traditional format would work too.

[adrian dancy]

Sharp and detailed where it counts. I would go less tight though.

[Jim Crosswell]

I like the details, pose, IQ, perch, HA and composition. Very well done Patrick.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Patrick, great image - beautiful! The bg does bother me a bit too but I was thinking - you might try lowering the blues on a few places in the bg - this might reduce the distraction factor. BTW, is there a pointer to the Arash workflow you mention? Thanks for sharing. Ihtisham

Thanks Ihtsiham. Arash and Artie Morris are working on a new guide on using Neat Image for noise reduction. It really is amazing and reduces noise like magic while still leaving detail. Everyone stay tuned as you are going to want to get it when it comes out.