This Reed Bunting was photographed early morning at Greylake RSPB Reserve, Somerset, UK back in February.
Canon 5D MkIV
Canon 600mm f/4 II
Gitzo Tripod with Wimberley II head
f/4
ISO 1600
1/8000 (my bad!)
Quite a substantial crop from the original.
Minimal adjustments in Lightroom Classic: White balance to cloudy, white and black clipping points, highlights and shadows, bit of vibrance.
Further adjustments in Photoshop CC: Levels, shadows and highlights, hue and saturation, contrast, removal of a few distracting reeds and the bottom of the frame, neat image noise reduction, smart sharpening.
I'm very new to Photoshop so any advice there would be particularly helpful, and all comments/criticism for the image are always appreciated.
Hi Jim, I like how the Bunting is framed by the vertical reeds, and you also managed a nice clean capture. The early light looks good and I like how the colours of the BG compliment the Bunting. Due to the large crop, the IQ has suffered quite a bit. With your set up, you should manage full frame shots.
Thanks for the feedback Stu, much appreciated! Getting closer seems to be my number one problem when photographing birds, not sure whether it's due to bad fieldcraft on my part or whether it's just that the locations I shoot at are home to very skittish birds, I'll keep at it!
I love this "small in the frame" habitat image. It works for me. If anything I'd remove the bright stem sticking in from the left edge. Getting closer is good too, and is half the fun.
This works very well for me Jim. I too like the small-in-the-frame look here and have a particular like of this type of shot. Great that the bird is well isolated from nearby rushes which makes it stand out all the better. It has held up fine to your crop as the detail looks good. Tones look pretty good to me and that nice light always makes for a good shot. Current composition works fine too but I could also see this as a more panoramic crop particularly with some off the bottom.
Many thanks for the feedback guys!
I have made an edit to remove the bright reed on the left as suggested by Daniel, looks much better. The edit can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/130330...posted-public/
Glenn, I considered the panoramic crop when I first started editing this image. If this wasn't such a huge crop already I probably would of gone that route.
Reed Bunting
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