Eastern Meadowlark

[Bob Blanchard]

I'm still working for the perfect image on one of these skittish little devils, but I'm getting better at working them. Learning their habits, and their calls. This from a couple days ago near my home:

Canon 1DsMII, 600 f/4L (wishing I'd had the 2x on!), ISO 200, 1/2000, 1/3 EV, late evening sun.

[Rafael Rodriguez Mojica]

Hi Bob, seems that you are getting closer to that perfect image. Very nice colors. Keep trying and good luck.

[Bob Blanchard]

Hi Bob,

This is what I call in your face!! Lovely light and habitat. Perhaps the habitat is taking away from your subject because the leaf are so close behind the subject. What do you think?

I love that question! You read EXACTLY what was going through my mind when deciding to post this particular image instead of one where his head was turned in the other direction away from the plant.

From my point of view, it's only the head which is the issue here. I felt that the shadow cast a nice natural border to seperate the body from the BG (sometimes "bending" the rules of perfect light angle actually pays dividends!), but the head did not get that benefit. I also felt that the habitat added to the comp, but the shadow is necessary to pull it off. The head is the problem. The plants immediately behind his beak are the biggest flaw IMO. Great catch and question!

I have several other frames with the head in different directions, and the body turned at different angles, but felt that this one had more elements of benefit than the others. The one critical takaway on this one is the head. If only this exact pose, with the head turned the other direction......then slide the crop over to include some of the plant on the right...

[Bob Blanchard]

Maxis - Here's kinda what I mean about the head angle. Now on this one, I'd need to clone out the stuff sticking out of his head, etc. But I think you see what i mean about the angle. Unfortunately, he only sang with his head in the other direction.

[Bob Blanchard]

Here's image 2 cleaned up a bit:

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Bob, may I suggest to take some of the yellow out of the bird in Hue/Sat yellow channel, you will get a lot more detail in the plumage. This happens often with reds and yellows in digital, the red channel gets blown with the warm light and there goes the detail. Both version are too tight in the frame for my taste.

[Bob Blanchard]

Thanks Fabs. I'll play with the crop and the yellow channel a bit. Sadly, these are significant crops, and I think a good bit of detail has been lost because of that more than anything. I'm getting pretty good at calling these guys in now, so I expect I'll be putting up some better ones soon! These are just my favorites "so far", but I'm not even close to done yet :-)

[Fabs Forns]

Bob, even if they were full frame, the yellow is oversaturared, thous making the detail hard to se.

Good luck in getting them :)

[Bob Blanchard]

Thanks Fabs. I'll play with the yellow. I know exactly what you are talking about, as male cardinals present the same prob. Any way to pick it up in camera and make adjustments in the field? I know the histogram looked good, but clearly the yellows were too warm. Maybe take it down a third more than usual? Or is it best to just deal with it in PP?