Chickadee on Yellow

[Desmond Chan]

D300 300mm on tripod; manual exposure mode, ISO800 f2.8 1/2000 sec., no flash.

Cropped and tweaked the background for composition purposes. Enhanced the colors.

C&C welcome !

Thanks !!

[denise ippolito]

Desmond I think this is nice and sharp. I like the BG color.I wish his head was slightly turned- but it's not like these little guys stay still for a moment.You did a great job on the details !!!

[Dave Brown]

Hi,

Really nice Desmond!! Everything looks pretty good here, pose, exposure, super sharp and great BG. My only wish is that the birds tail was not so close to the oof branch in the foreground...but overall I think this is fantastic, congrats!

Dave Brown

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Desmond:

What do you think of this idea?

Uncle Gus :D:D

[Alfred Forns]

Re post Rocks !!! I did not like the looks of the branch on the corner, it was overpowering the bird. Excellent PS work Gus !!!

[denise ippolito]

Great re-post How did you do that Gus?

[Nonda Surratt]

Super nice bird and BG Desmond..Fantastic repost Gus, just the ticket!

[Doug Brown]

You did great with the bird Desmond, but the repost is a big improvement! Congrats to both you and Gus!

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Denise:

I used the Brush tool to clear branch around back of tail. When you use default brush tool at zero you can never get a clean edge, so when you get close so there is no overspray approaching tail, change your hardness to 100% and very carefully paint up to edge of tail or any part of photo you are blending color to subject. Then I saved Chickadee.

Then I cropped so I had only bottom branch pointing to right. Saved it as "branch" then flipped it horizontally. .

As your background in Layers is now "Branch" I went to File>Recent>Chickadee I had just saved.

Now have Chickadee & Branch in layers. Activate Branch, press "V" (Move) and drag branch into place.

Then using Background Eraser, I outlined branch exposing background. After going around branch. I changed to "E" eraser, and erased remnants of branch background.

When I was satisfied with Branch in place, I clicked tiny down arrow at top of layers>flatten image.

Carefully with low opacity I cloned branch at joint, and with brush tool at low opacity I tidied up BG.

Your results are governed by the time and patience you want to spend.(Could even merge bits of BG with more time to spend.)

Hope this helps.

Uncle Gus

[denise ippolito]

Thankyou -That advice will come in handy!! I read where you told someone to blend at 30% opacity and it made a diff. in my workflow Thank you once again

[Desmond Chan]

Thanks guys for the kind words and suggestions ! Thank Uncle Gus for sharing your techniques !!

[Gus Cobos]

Nice capture Desmond and nice repost Uncle Gus...:cool:

[Harold Davis]

nice base image, desmond and awesome repost by uncle gus!! great job on both parts!!!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Nice composition and sharp bird Desmond. Excellent re post uncle Gus.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Like the repost bu Gus esp. the perch.. Seemed to have a green/yellow colour cast in the first. You are getting VG at this chickadee captures Desmond.

[Desmond Chan]

You are getting VG at this chickadee captures Desmond.

Thanks for the kind words, Jackie. I'm still probing my way in photography. Chickadee is one of my favourite birds and I can find them without much difficulty. Since they're available, so I just think: "Why not take photographs of them?"