Red-browed Finch

[Glenn Pure]

An aptly named species! I was working in a mixed feeding flock of small birds and this little chap popped on to a branch near me, posed for a few moments, then moved on. They are quite common and like most small birds, fairly hyper! I have cloned out a couple of twigs that were in focus or near so and a heavy branch just intersecting the bottom left corner (I do clone sometimes). They were just too distracting and I liked the shot enough to go there. However, I've left the other 'distractions' in the background - apologies in advance. It has been very dry here and the background is dead grass. This is a fairly hard crop and represents just over a quarter of the frame area.

As always, thank you for looking and for any comments you are kind enough to share.

Technical: Canon 80D with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM Mk II at 400mm handheld. Manual exposure 1/500 sec, f7.1, ISO 1000 (for once I wasn't battling poor light). Processed in Canon DPP 4 (digital lens optimiser @ 50, sharpness = 2.5, crop, lighting adjustments, reduced luminance NR) then exported 16 bit TIFF to Photoshop Elements with Neat Image NR plugin. Modest NR to bird and stronger NR to background. Bird only sharpened in PSE (Sharpness tool, remove Gaussian Blur, 0.4 pixels at 50%) after final size reduction.

[Tobie Schalkwyk]

What a beautiful birdie, Glenn! Love the reds and the background color complements its tummy color nicely. I might have burnt its left leg just a touch but otherwise - perfect!

[William Dickson]

Lovely colours Glenn. Very nice detail on the bird. I don't mind the OOF in the BG. I would have liked a better HA.

Will

[Daniel Cadieux]

The BG would not have been as distracting had you been able to take a step or two to your left (if possible) - this would have given separation between the oof vegetation and the finch's face. As is I would burn the bright vertical part, but the rest is pleasingly blurred enough. Great bird that is fun to see in a natural setting rather then behind bars at a pet store. The reds have been rendered beautifully. I'd have loved a bit better head angle though.

[Walker Noe]

I agree with comments re BG and HA. This looks great for a quarter crop. Nice light and exposure.

[John Mack]

The bird's you post are very cool. I always enjoy viewing these. That red around the eye and bill is great. Maybe less of a head turn would have been better.

[Glenn Pure]

Thank you all for the comments. The opportunity was fleeting so I grabbed what I could including placement of background material and head angle.

[Bill Dix]

What a beautiful bird. Thanks for sharing it. I don't mind the 'distractions'. Certainly a step left would have been nice but we don't always have that option. Still very nice as posted.

[kevin Hice]

Nice Glenn beautiful bird, might be nit picking wish the branch didn't intersect the bird. Nice one Glenn, maybe we look for to much perfection.

[Paul Burdett]

Hi Glenn. Seen many of these here in Brisvegus...but not captured one as clear as this. I'm ok with the oof backgound. Well done.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

The details and the reds are striking Glenn, the perch is nice and the BG good except the OOF vegetation but not a deal breaker.

[Bret Goddard]

Nicely done, any way you look.