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Thread: Striated Thornbill

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    Default Striated Thornbill

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    Another bird many of you probably haven't seen. This is very typical behaviour of these tiny birds, dangling from foliage looking for an insect or often a spider. This one has found some webs in the dead leaves. Note the wing blur (which probably breaks a few rules but I like it) - I think the bird was about to take off but I took this more than 3 years ago and honestly can't remember the situation at the time. I have toned down the OOF dead leaves on the left, reduced highlights on the bird and added mid-tone contrast there. Unfortunately, there is no frame left on the right otherwise I would have done a different crop. I really love these little birds in spite of their speed and difficulty as photographic subjects. I'd love to get one hovering which they commonly do when foraging but not managed that yet and they've already disappeared for another year. Crop is about three quarters of the frame area.

    Thanks for taking a look and any comments you are kind enough to provide.

    Technical: Canon 700D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM (original version) at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/320 sec, f6.3, ISO 800. Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 3, crop, lighting adjustments, NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR applied to bird and stronger to background. Sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur: 0.4 pixels at 50%) after final size reduction.

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    Super Moderator Daniel Cadieux's Avatar
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    I love the swirled perch and the way the subject is clinging to it. I like most of the BG, but not on the left side - I'd look into either cropping some out, or smoothing out those bright streaks (or both). Sounds like a very active little bugger, kinda similar to our kinglets behaviour-wise from your description.

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    BPN Member William Dickson's Avatar
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    I second Dans suggestion and crop from the LHS. Great looking image Glenn. Looks almost 3D effect on my monitor. Great DOF. Love the perch. Nice pose on the bird and I like the facial expression. But yes, if the IQ holds I would crop tighter.. Worth considering as it is a very nice image.

    Well done.

    Will

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    BPN Member Tim Foltz's Avatar
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    Glenn, cute little bird looks similar to our Bushtit. I like the details and colors, if you have the room I might go with a vertical comp and get rid of the distracting BG on the left.

    -Tim

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    Thanks Daniel, Will and Tim. I have revisited the composition based on your suggestions and some further thinking. Hope that's an improvement.

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