Lord of the Flies

[Brian Sump]

As I have succumb to heat shimmers the past few outings shooting near the water, I have decided to focus more on mountainous species during the summer.

This weekend I visited a popular destination called Lair o' the Bear. It is about 10 minutes into the mountains from the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater. I was delighted to encounter several species I have not seen before including this Cordilleran Flycatcher.

The burden of overcast skies and mountain shadows meant I had to shoot with super low SS but pulled out a few from the shoot.

A few notes:

1. I understand the bkg is a bit busy so if you hate it please feel free to add in your comments. I chose to leave some of the branches and leaves as well as blue spots where the sky shone through in order to help frame the subject.

2. On this file I ran 162/.8 in C1P for RAW sharpening and ZERO final output sharpening other than a consistent 15/15 in Topaz on the whole TIFF image.

3. In the Killdeer reflection I gave a go to adjusting the RGB levels layers individually, sliding the low and high sliders until they met the histogram. This time I simply ran a curves layer and sampled the white, black and 50% gray points using a Threshold layer and finding the very first pixel for each color in the photo as I moved the slider. That color corrected slightly but more importantly really brought out the detail and contrast in the bird. These earthy/yellow tones are true to the bird in the field.

4. If you notice the rear head of the bird looks soft, it was. I had a good bit of noise to deal with and this area just lost a touch of detail.

Alright, enough talking...

D850
600mm + 1.4x
HH
ISO 1600
1/250
f5.6

Post in C1 and PS. Cleaned up some bkg

[arash_hazeghi]

nice little fellow light was great details are pretty good and although we can nit pick about it the main issue here is the busy BG and where improvement should be directed at. looks like someone had pruned the branch? I am wondering if you can do a setup perch with a better BG?

TFS

[Bill Dix]

I don't mind the BG at all. When you're shooting real woodland birds in the real woods, this is what it looks like. Congratulations on seeing and capturing a new (to you) species of Flycatcher. I've not seen this one before either, and didn't realize they had such a buffy color. I'm not crazy about the oof leaf crossing the left part of the perch, and suggest a little eye doctor work to slightly lighten the iris.

[Brian Sump]

nice little fellow light was great details are pretty good and although we can nit pick about it the main issue here is the busy BG and where improvement should be directed at. looks like someone had pruned the branch? I am wondering if you can do a setup perch with a better BG?

TFS

Ari, this branch was in an untouched tree as far as I know. It is nested right by the river and this branch hangs over so very unlikely.

The goal here was to find a set up other than a dead stick along with some foliage to frame the bird. Flowers, dinner in mouth, interesting poses are just icing. That will be my overarching goal moving forward although I'm certainly not opposed to setting up perches like some of the greats do but there are other opportunities in the are; this was my first time there.

[dankearl]

BG is fine with me. The OOF leave crossing the branch could be fixed easily with clone tool if you care and the
white streak at the bottom of frame could blurred out easily.
Nice view of this small bird.

[Brian Sump]

I don't mind the BG at all. When you're shooting real woodland birds in the real woods, this is what it looks like. Congratulations on seeing and capturing a new (to you) species of Flycatcher. I've not seen this one before either, and didn't realize they had such a buffy color. I'm not crazy about the oof leaf crossing the left part of the perch, and suggest a little eye doctor work to slightly lighten the iris.

Bill thank you for your meaningful reply. I saw the leaf too; am trying to leave things as close to natural setting as possible. Absolutely room for improvement there however.

[John Mack]

The background is out of focus enough for me. It's not always possible to get that smooth solid butter background. I could see this cropped for the left some. Detail on the bird looks good.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Hey Brian, the bird looks great the background not so much. Nice light, colors and detail on the bird look good. Really difficult with the little ones to get a clean background. I normally pick a perch that gives a pure background, then I tell myself if the bird goes there I capture images, if not I walk away. Thank you for sharing.

[Brian Sump]

Here is a repost option with tighter crop, stick fixed on left and a touch of bkg cleaning. I think I have the IQ to hold up to it....

[Brian Sump]

Much appreciated Joe and John

[Daniel Cadieux]

Hmmm - overcast and low shutter speeds....welcome to my world! I love this, great bird in a beautiful setting. Sharpness looks perfect here. That one white streak below does draw my eye there, but the repost addresses this well. Overall though I prefer the first version.

[arash_hazeghi]

repost for me, cleaned up some of the distractions nicely

[Bill Dix]

Nicely done, Brian.

[Jay Ing]

I like the rework better. Nice shot. Those little critters are tough to get clean looks at. TFS.

[Brian Sump]

Mucho appreciated all. While no resize sharpening was needed on the larger, I used 45/.3 SS on the repost. I might have backed off a touch in hindsight

[Dorian Anderson]

Like the Pacific-slope Flycatcher from which this bird was (unnecessarily/incorrectly) split, these guys are really hard to get in the open; they are always under the cover of canopy and hard to capture cleanly.

That said, I like the original better based solely on composition, the repost cramming the bird into the frame to avoid peripheral distraction. As someone who strives for perfectly clean
backgrounds, I am also a die hard birder who appreciates that goal is more easily accomplished with some species than others. The original is an accurate depiction of this bird in-habitat.