Nuthatch

[Jonathan Ashton]

Image taken at local woodland, hand held
Olympus E-M1X
300mmf4 & MC14 (840mm equivalent)
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 2000
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter : 1/1600 sec
Aperture : F5.6

ACR/TopazDNAI/PSCC

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

I think nuthatches are cute little guys, very perky. Yours have more color on the breast than ours.

Like the head turn, hole with promise of seeds or other yummies, composition.

I might consider some selective contrast enhancement, as it appears just a bit flat to me.

Cheers

Randy

[David Roach]

Love the light, framing and SH right where it needs to be. TFS

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon ... cool little Nuthatch .
Nice pose and the green perch is awesome , love the green hues in the tree bark !!!
In this one I really like the subtle sharpness , top notch IMHO . Not overdone and no artifacts in any form !!!
Overall color and Tones are right on the money ... personally I would add any contrast at all , globally and not even locally .
Good PP work !!!!!!

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon ... cool little Nuthatch .
Nice pose and the green perch is awesome , love the green hues in the tree bark !!!
In this one I really like the subtle sharpness , top notch IMHO . Not overdone and no artifacts in any form !!!
Overall color and Tones are right on the money ... personally I would add any contrast at all , globally and not even locally .
Good PP work !!!!!!

TFS Andreas

Thanks Andreas, I backed off sharpening as I do most images but a little more than usual on this one. I guess you don't mind Topaz on this one?

[Jonathan Ashton]

Jon:

I think nuthatches are cute little guys, very perky. Yours have more color on the breast than ours.

Like the head turn, hole with promise of seeds or other yummies, composition.

I might consider some selective contrast enhancement, as it appears just a bit flat to me.

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy, I feel if more contrast were added it might block the blacks. I think - correct me if I am wrong that on your side of the pond you favour a more intense colouration than we do over here on this side. Nothing wrong with that I guess we all perceive colours slightly differently. I must admit when I visited USA a few years back I was quite surprised at just how colourful the scenery was.

[William Dickson]

Looking good Jon...Its nice to see a Nuthatch different from the usual Nuthatch pose....colours look good to me..The tree looks good, especially where the bird is perched. I like your chosen crop...these birds are still quite rare in my neck of the woods, but they are moving north, and numbers appear to be up in Scotland.

Will

[Brian Sump]

Jon, subject looks good and love the calling action.

Very interesting with the mossy tree. I see what you did with the composition and think it was the right choice considering the eye in the trunk.

I'd only wish to have the feet and the ring around the tree's eye in focus. I'm probably an outlier on that but.... at least the feet perhaps.

Unique frame, glad you shared it!

[John Mack]

Not the ususal upside down pose we see. Nice to see the calling pose. I like the soft light.

[Randy Stout]

Jon:

I do think we favor a bit more saturated colors, hadn't thought about it being an environmental thing vs. just being more of a cultural thing.
I took a quick pass at your image, which I do really like, and used selective contrast enhancement of the mid and white tones, used a black mask and then lightly brushed in the contrast to taste. Pretty subtle, and I just thought it helped the bird pop a bit more without being garish.

One of the joys of BPN, different takes on images.

Cheers

Randy

[Andreas Liedmann]

Thanks Andreas, I backed off sharpening as I do most images but a little more than usual on this one. I guess you don't mind Topaz on this one?

Albeit not being a " fan" of TopazLabs plugins , I think it is a mostly a " user error " when things go wild with NR and sharpening with their plugins . In the end it is for sure a matter of taste as well ... how heavy the NR has to be . In this case you have done a great job with Topaz DNAI ....
I rather trust my own " intelligence " with help of Neat image in terms of noise reduction and the sharpening is working so well inside PS and my " intelligence " .... LOL . But this is just my way .... and all others can go with whatever suits their need .

Cheers Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Randy thanks for the repost, - good to see an alternative, I like it.