California Gnatcatcher

[Sharif Uddin]

Hi everyone,

Posting after a long break. I got this bird earlier this month near the coast. The California Gnatcatcher has very limited limited range along the SoCal coast. It was a partially cloudy afternoon with the sun coming out occasionally which made the exposure somewhat challenging. For this shot the sun was on my left, fortunately, behind clouds. I increased the exposure by 0.5 in C1 pro during raw conversion. Removed a few distracting twigs from the bottom of the frame in PS. Also removed blue cast on the bird. NR with NI v8 and sharpening in PS.

Nikon D850 + 500mm f/5.6 PF
1/1600s
f/5.6
ISO 1250
Handheld

[arash_hazeghi]

I like the pose and the delicate perch, good HA. The bird shows a magenta cast and the head area can use a bit more sharpening/extraction of detail in the darks. BG is nice and clean

TFS

[Sharif Uddin]

Thank you for your suggestions, Arash. Here is a repost. I have added some green to the midtones to remove the magenta cast and additional sharpening to the black cap.

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Sharif nice simple frame of the little bird , well done .
Tones , details and sharpness looking good . Attractive perch and well framed .

Not knowing the bird , I would still raise the question if the bird show that much blue in the plumage ??

Nice one TFS Andreas

[Daniel Cadieux]

The colours look much better in the repost. Neat little bird, good perch, excellent background. I know it sounds minor, but I'd certainly take the Content Aware tool and fill that hole on the leaf directly beneath the belly. Good stuff overall.