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Thread: Fairy Martin

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    Default Fairy Martin

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    OK...so I spent a few fun hours at one of my favourite locales, and managed to get three "lifers"...Fairy Martins,Tree Martins and a Bar-shouldered Dove. However, the Martins were perched on the wire fence and didn't land on a better perch...they would fly away and return. I was able to get pretty close to the Tree Martins, but not as close with the Fairy Martins. I'll post a Tree martin after editing more photos. I had a quick go at replacing the wire with a branch from another photo... it works ok, but I'd need to spend more time to get it looking natural...I'd like some comments as to whether you think it's a good idea or not to do that. From the more traditional poses I chose this one to post. This is a fairly large crop, with some tweaks in ACR and Photoshop. 7Dii, 100-400 at 400mm, 1/500th sec at f5.6, iso 500 in AV mode.
    Cheers.

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    Macro and Flora Moderator Jonathan Ashton's Avatar
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    It's a very pleasing image Paul you obviously had a great time.
    I suspect the image is quite a crop I would suggest reducing it slightly and possibly increasing sharpening or adding a little clarity. Regards the wire, I think only you will know. If you did substitute a perch and if it worked you couldn't ever use the image without having to explain.... you have to ask yourself is that better than the image as it was. In my view birds do perch on wire, I have got used to it! A natural perch is more pleasing to the eye but we don't always get what we want.

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    The pose and background are great. The crop has affected the image quality some. I wouldn't go through the trouble of replacing the perch. I don't mind the wire.

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    Birds perch where they want, a wire is where it perched and that is where you should show it. Nice pose and lovely smooth background. Techs already covered. I might try lightening the eye a touch if it were mine.

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    BPN Member Dorian Anderson's Avatar
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    I think completely replacing a perch is too much manipulation and mostly disingenuous. The wire is certainly an issue but you should focus on getting the shot you want in the field.
    This is what it is. A nice shot of an alert swallow on a wire.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    A lovely image and bird but I do not understand the square crop here. A horizontal 3X2 or close to it, would be my choice.

    with love, artie
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

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    Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions, which I will take on board. I agree about not replacing the wire with a "fake" perch...just wanted some opinions on that.
    Artie: There was an other oof Martin on the left of this one, so I cropped to 8x12 inches. Not sure what you mean by square crop here, but I'll try the 3x2 crop as you suggested.
    Cheers.

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    Publisher Arthur Morris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Burdett View Post
    Thank you all for the feedback and suggestions, which I will take on board. I agree about not replacing the wire with a "fake" perch...just wanted some opinions on that.
    Artie: There was an other oof Martin on the left of this one, so I cropped to 8x12 inches. Not sure what you mean by square crop here, but I'll try the 3x2 crop as you suggested.
    Cheers.
    Hey Paul, My bad. I forgot to hit Control minus in order to view the whole image :( It looks fine as posted. Thanks for the heads-up.

    with love, artie
    BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.

    BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.

    Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,

    E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.










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    Hi Artie...no problem...thanks for reminding me of ctr-...now I know what to do in the case of images on this forum that sometimes don't have a scroll bar at the bottom...lol

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