Eastern Bluebird Takes Flight

[Bill Jobes]

Here's an eastern bluebird lifting off a meadow twig in New Jersey this past weekend.

Nikon D3
600mm VR with 1.4 TC
VR Off
ISO 1250
1/8000
F 7.1

As always, comments and critiques welcomed !

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

Lovely bird, nice wing position and head angle. Complimenatry background.

I like the concept of balancing the bird with the twigs, but wish they didn't merge with the wing.
Because the bill merges with the back wing, it gets lost a bit.

I would be tempted to add a bit of canvas to the right. There seems to be some noise in the dark areas of the far wing, which is suprising on a D3 at such a low ISO(low for the D3!)

The eye and head aren't critically sharp. Perhaps another pass with USM would help here.

Pretty image really, just my observations on what jumps out at me.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the angle and wing position, BG looks good, too. The merging of bird and perch does not bother me. I agree with Randy that the bird looks a bit soft, which is surprising at that shutter speed. I can't really see where the critical focus is. Stopping down might have helped. I would add some canvas left and right.

[Don Lacy]

lovely BG and nice job in capturing the moment of take off, have to agree with adding canvas as he looks a little cramped n the frame.

[Fabs Forns]

Hmm, motion blur is highly unlikely at 8000. What focus points were you using? It looks like you were working on him as a still when he took of. Maybe the focus didn't follow him as well as it should have. Anyway, the softness isn't that much and I'm sure it can be overcome in p/p.

Canvas should be easy to add.
Keep them coming!

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

The focus point is right across the joint where the wing meets the body ... half on the body and half on the wing.

I was using the single center focus point and yes, I was photographing it as a sitting bird, and went for the takeoff on instinct more than anything else.

I understand and appreciate your point Randy about the merging of elements. I was so happy with the wing display that I failed to look closely at that.

The second frame in the series has more spacing, but the wing isn't as dramatic.

As for sharpness, I think I can razor it up in Photoshop. I tend to favor less, rather than more sharpness. It's a personal preference. Sometimes that results in a slightly soft image.

I will tinker with it and see what happens, and if it changes things for the better, I'll repost.

Again, thanks for the suggestions !

[Randy Stout]

Bill:

It is a nice image, and the value of the great wing position outweighs the value of a merge free frame with poor wing position. Just a comment on perfect world improvements. Perhaps next time!

As far as focus, I don't think it would have really gotten my attention except for the softness of the eye, which is an image killer. I would probably be very happy with just some eye work.

Randy

Randy

[Bill Jobes]

For some perspective, here's the full frame of the Bluebird, with some Capture NX 2 processing.

I uploaded it to Photoshop to convert to sRGB and resize for the web.

I haven't gone back to totally rework the image. But perhaps the crop itself contributed to the perceived softness.

[Stu Bowie]

I like the colours in this Bill, and great timing for the take off. Looking at your original, seems like you have lost slight IQ with the crop. The wing definately looks sharper than the head, and normally with BIF, its the other way around. Still, well captured.

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks Stuart.

Sometimes we luck upon a colour combination that just sings. I think this is one of those moments. Later in the season, with the meadow green, it would have been much less appealing.