Here are the birds I photograph when there are no birds to photograph. They have taught me so much. This is a set up in my backyard. You can see one of the posts in the "crop" image. Very overcast, but no rain. I've pushed the ISO a bit and would be interested to see how you think it's held up. There is a slight reddish reflection coming from the perch that has coloured his belly.
In ACR - Increased exposure just a fraction, Highlights and whites to the left. In the HSL panel reduced red, yellow, green purples and magenta
In PSCS6 - One curves adjustment layer. BIG NR on BG, cropped and bird smart sharpened for posting.
Very soft light and actually I like how it renders the birds color and details more. Pose is good but I don't like how the perch ends on the right. It's way too strong, Glennie and thus it keeps on pulling my eyes away from the bird. For an ISO 4000 image, this is remarkable details, Glennie!
Glennie: I think it's great that you have a location and set-up that allows you to continually get lots of (great) shots. Lots of chances and practice. I'm jealous as I cannot have a location like this due to (a) squirrels who raid the feeders and (b) rats that get attracted to the by-spill.
Sorry, off topic -- back to the pic: I have to say I really like the bird's pose. So engaging!! These are the kinds of poses I want to grab; a standard portrait look is fine, but this one makes me feel like the bird is trying to communicate to me!
Your focus for the bird seems perfect to me -- It looks to me like you were aiming at the head, but the bird's body is in-line with the focus point. Yet just a few inches (or less) deeper, and you start to go OOF -- look at the branch of the left side of the bird vs. on the right! Awesome!
What Adhika said about the branch at the end on the right is true for me too. Of course we can see from your crop picture why you cropped where you did; I'd have done the same (or worse!). Question: Why is the crop pic a little different crop from your OP pic? Not a big deal, just curious. Now, a question for you/Adhika -- how do you go about fixing this -- what options could you use?
I thought I heard that sometimes you can add a "highlight" in the eye and it gives the bird a bit more life. A consideration here?
Glennie, I know you say you aren't ready for Avian, but most of your pics (at least to me) say you are this close .....
My photoshop skill is not quite there yet but I am not confident that I can remove this using the assortment of clean-up tools. What do you think, Glennie?
Andrew - There could be a plus side to feeding squirrels. Have a look at some of the images of squirrels in the Wildlife forum. They could be as much fun as birds.
I hate to say to it, but there are so many "perfect" images over on the Avian forum, that sometimes I just look at them to find a flaw. So this type of image is also a favourite of mine. Yes. I always aim for the eye and let the DOF fall where it may. I was interested to see the effect of the perch as well.
The crop picture is probably a little out because I never commit to the crop in ACR. I get a good idea where it might be, but then take it into PS to complete it (with any other adjustments) This gives you a bit more leeway. To fix this branch would be a good exercise for anyone. Not impossible, but not easy. The first thing I am going to do is get another perch! The second thing is maybe "lasso" the dark bit and feather it, and do a curves adjustment layer to lighten it. The third thing, which would take a bit of time, is by using the "patch" tool and clone tools. I think if I just cropped it off it would make the bird too tight in the frame, so not an option for me.
Andrew, I also look for catch lights or at least light on, in, the eye. Very rarely will I even keep an image that doesn't have one. I actually cloned out a very large one in this image. Have I gone too far?
Thank you for your kind and honest critique.
Adhika - I keep meaning to say CONGRATULATIONS for IOTW! I might give this a whirl. (when I have a spare 5 minutes!) What would you use Adhika?
And thank you for your always honest and thoughtful critques!
Found a minute to pop in here -- good discussion above and another nice image. Sharp, well-detailed, great tonalities and I love the soft light
I'd crop the dark end of the perch just to loose the little bright dot. That minimizes it's importance a little without too much crowding, for my taste. In ACR/LR you can go to the adjustment brush and check Auto Mask and it might select the dark area well enough to lighten it and reduce its contrast and/or lower saturation. If that isn't good enough I'd draw a quick mask in PS and toggle that to a selection and do the same adjustments there. Making any adjustment layer will use that selection to make a mask. Invert the selection first if necessary.
No time to try it here on my laptop but I think it might work well. I'm seeing a somewhat undersaturated look, leaning to warm tones, which seems typical of your images, Glennie. Still wondering about your monitor, but it could just be what you're used to and prefer. Pull off some images from other posts and open them in PS for comparison.
I like it Glennie, the details are terrific! To me the dark end of the perch is what I picture has caught the bird's eye to give him that interesting pose! But what I would want to do is somehow "finnish" it so it has an end! So many different ways to look at an image!
Here's the re post. Used the patch tool and a bit of cloning, and cropped a bit off the side. It still looks a bit funny, but I was surprised to see how easy the patch tool worked.
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