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Thread: A convenient perch

  1. #1
    Steve Foss
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    Default A convenient perch

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    Perhaps this belongs in the "hand of man" category. The black-capped chickadee was wild and unrestrained, but the deer antler was not attached to a live deer. It was mounted above an outhouse in the country next to a bird feeding station, and so made a handy perch for birds staging to and from the feeder tray.

    If this should be moved, no prob. :)

    There's a lot I like about this image. It gets its share of oohs and aahs from bird lovers who are not also avian photographers, but I'm interested in what you all do and don't like, and why.

    Thanks in advance for looking.

    1Dmk2n, 400 f2.8L non IS, 1.4 TC, iso200, 1/500 at f4, tripod, crop in from sides for comp.

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    Steve
    I like the colors in this image. What an interesting perch......I couldn't figure out what the image was doing here when I saw the thumbnail. The angle seems a bit steep but the chickadee looks good. Did you use an Shadow/Highlight recovery in the image? It seems like a little bit of a halo around the head so I don't know if it's just my tired eyes, the lighting, or a halo.

  3. #3
    Steve Foss
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    Thanks, Lana, for looking and commenting. The BG colors complementing the subject(s) are one of the things I'm most attracted to here.

    The chickadee was about a foot above the camera, and about 10 feet away. I did use S/H to pull more detail from the shadows but decided that less was more and opted not to lighten the neck patch any more. I'll take a closer look for a halo. When sharpening, I'm pretty religious when selective sharpening to lasso the subject just inside the edges so no halos develop, but mistakes DO creep in now and then. :)

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    Steve
    The shadow around the top of the head is really more like a "glow". It's not like a sharpening halo. This may have come from the S/H. Just as you select the specific area to sharpen, you can do the same with S/H.

  5. #5
    Steve Foss
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    Just a note: For those of you wondering what Lana means in her first post, this image was first posted here, then moved to the "hand of man" board, where Lana found it and replied to it, and then was moved back here.

    Anyway, sure looking for some more opinions on the image. :cool:

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    I like the idea Steve. I think to make this one shine though you needed to have more of a side on pose and to try to compose the shot so that the bird is a bit bigger in the frame.

  7. #7
    Steve Foss
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    Thanks, Glenn. I have another one just like you suggested and will post it below when enough time has passed. I don't like it as well because the light is hotter and that turned the antler too bright and the background blotchy. And of course the tighter it is the less of the background transition from warm to cool is in the image, but I'll put it up for you to look at.
    Last edited by Steve Foss; 01-09-2008 at 01:44 AM.

  8. #8
    Steve Foss
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    Here's the other image, if Glenn or others are interested.

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    Hi Steve! :) I think the real challenge here is finding the right comp with the antlers and bird. I have done this shot a few times as well and have just not been happy with my efforts. I do like the complimentary colors in the BG.

  10. #10
    Steve Foss
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    Thanks, Mike. In going through all the images in that sequence, I settled on the one I posted because I liked the light, the bird's pose (which is not the standard chickadee pose), its relationship to the antler and the BG transition from warm to cool. None of the others in the series had much impact on me. It would be very interesting, though not really possible, to mount half a dozen of the series in different poses/crops and see which got the most votes.

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