Waxwing Uk portrait

[Stuart Philpott]

One of many many images on that exciting first day in my life of finally catching up with this bird. One of incredibly few with a nearly clean BKG. Incredibly challenging here in England to get a nice bkg as they frequent very urban sites on the whole. this seems to be something many have struggled with. I've followed them away from feeding here to a drinking site hence the more natural colours . I'd clone out the twig above perch completely if I could. Processed in dpp4. Cropped for comp maybe 70 75 % of full frame

Canon1Div 300 f2.8 is 1,4extiii
1/1250
f5.6
iso2500

Cheers for all the help and thoughtful comments on my previous images

take care

Stu

[Steve Kaluski]

Stu, it's very hard to get a 'clean' backdrop without it being a set-up, so you did well.

I'm away and on the laptop, but I feel the WB needs to go cooler (more to the LH side) and the Tint more to the Magenta, the later in a much smaller amount. Once you can get that sorted you can then take it in any direction you want to. I would also run a small amount of NR to the BKG too. The issue you have is applying sharpening to the final stage of output with only DPP, (please can anyone add help in this direction when using DPP, NOT PS), when you do Stu, you can see the original is sharp.

BTW I'm not sure what the streak is in the BKG to the RHS of the subject???

TFS
Steve

[William Dickson]

Hi Stu, I think this is your best Waxwing image to date. Steve's repost has made it better, but I do feel you are 'getting there'. I like the pose on the bird, and the BG and perch colours blend well. They are getting scarcer up here now, nearly all the local rowan trees have been stripped off berries. If you are like me, I am sure you will have lots of images to choose from

Will

[Stuart Philpott]

As always mate thanks for this!!
Couldn't quite make the best of this spot ,a lady settled there first english etiquette huh I went back next day and it had rained, puddles all ways,a real shame Steve: there was some magic to be had there,but I'm still beyond thrilled to have one image.
Steve WB I went eyedropper first but felt it a tad cool,so set via colour temp 5K,maybe a personal pref. But certainly I had explored this which is cool.
Magenta understood,so much green is throwing that.

Interesting to have shot so many Steve,light hitting this birds feathers seems to enhance detail on a great level shaded images like this almost seem softer,incidental to what you are saying but really apparent in this little treasure ,for me. I questioned myself at first but the beaks and eyes seem to show similar details, ha ha maybe I've just stared too long,lol

Steve I did adress the nr but very subtle,I felt if I went further the feather detail ,which is lacking ,would be gone,it;s back to just not being able to work selectively and the compromises within that. But it's nice getting a grasp on what I want to do later.

I think that streak is the out of focus branch returning,I don't honestly know though (studied at silly percent),mystified frankly. It's part of what I'd remove if I could. I preferred the HA here Steve that slight learn it almost conveys curiosity to me,but not a single other frame in this set has that streak???? Plain weird have options though.

Will thanks for the reply, a gem of a spot really compared to where they are so oft found,a rare chance bit of a shame how things worked out,but I got a couple of sets there. I sort of like the tangle of where many are feeding will,I like this type of portrait shot though it's like a study too me. But so nice to not really be threading the needle as it were

,still alot around here a good dose of reports. I guess they got here later though ,so maybe it's taking longer to clean up. There are lots of apples around here though,which might just help them along.


Many thanks both

Stu