Red Wing Black Bird From Florida

[Ed Cordes]

Another image from our Florida trip last month. This beauty was at Wakodahatchee in nice early morning light. I like the way their wings go out when they sing.

1DMK2 with 500 f4 and 1.4 TC. Manual exposure at ISO 400 f 5.6 and 1/640. Cropped to vertical from horizontal.

Thanks for looking. All comments are most welcome.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice singing pose with the epaulets flared. You might want to select the Reds and add 30-50 points of Cyan in Selective Color to tone them down. The extra stuff on the otherwise nice perch is distracting. The biggest problem is that the bird has his nictitating membrane over the eye.

Do you have a similar with the eye open?

[Maxis Gamez]

This is very nice with a clean BG. Very sharp. I have to agree with Artie. I would try to fix the eye!

Glad you had a good trip!

[Ed Cordes]

Thanks for the input Artie and Maxis. Unfortunately every shot I have found so far has the eye closed. I have others I have not looked at yet and will try to find one that matches.

Thanks again.

[Ed Cordes]

I have added an eye from the same bird from another shot. I guess this makes the image photoart? I also toned down the reds as suggested and removed the squiggly perch stuff.

What do you think now??

[Arthur Morris]

I think that it is much improved, and yes, it is a photo-illustration.