Yellow Warbler

[Bill Dix]

Tough to get one of these little guys posing for a split-second in the open. Tougher yet on a windy day with the sun zipping in and out of the clouds, making exposure difficult. So when this guy sat on an open perch in the shade, I grabbed the shot without time to check exposure, and under-exposed it by a full stop, creating a challenge for Topaz. DeNoise - Low Light did a pretty decent job, I thought. No blurring or cloning, except for a few small spots on the perch. I raised the exposure in RAW, and then added a bit more brightness and contrast to the bird in PS. I also mitigated some magenta cast on the branch. Used Topaz Sharpen AI separately on bird and perch. Tried a vertical crop but didn't like it as much.

D500, Sigma 150-600C @ 600mm, ISO 1600, 1/3200s @ f/6.3 manual. HH

[annmpacheco]

Nice recovery Bill, I like the pose and the oof limb in the BG, nice details throughout the warbler w nice streaking. Just saw my first YEWA 5 minutes ago of course, no camera...

[gail bisson]

It is almost impossible to get a bad image of these sweet little warblers.
Your PP looks good for the situation.
I mage is still a bit dark but yellows look good (so hard to blow out a yellow warbler)
I wish the foliage on the left was not there because it pulls the eye away from this cutie-patootie!
Gail

[Brian Sump]

Bill, looks like you played the hand you were dealt very nicely.

The right side of the frame including the Warbler look good. I do feel, though that the branches on the left take away some. Might be a little better off had they been further left in frame, from a balance perspective as opposed to so close to the head.

For using AI sharpen, it appears decent although I'm not convinced that is the best tool for the job. Possible there's some color fringing where the reds are coming into the plumage (i.e. chest and neck feathers)?

None-the-less, this got me excited for the songbirds to arrive here. TFS!

[John Mack]

Warblers a tough to photograph. I've only tried a couple times. I do like the pose. The yellow/blue and green go great together.

[Arthur Morris]

I love this frame. You did a superb job with the processing. I think that the leaves add a ton, especially the ones on the lower branch. Great pose and great that you got the bird's head clear of the leaves. My only negative would be the small splash of sun on the bird's right flank.

with love, a

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. I thought about removing the oof branch, but decided it made the image a little different and balanced (and for a change, I thought I would post one where I didn't add or remove any elements). Gail, I agree the bird could be just a tad brighter.