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Thread: Can you see me?

  1. #1
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    Default Can you see me?

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    I find woodpeckers a challenge to render photographically. I have lots of whole birds on a tree trunk but they rarely grab my attention. Often it has to do with poor lighting. Anyway, I thought I'd try this Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) on you. I was lucky to have them infrequently all winter at my feeder.

    I cropped, mostly from the left, ran NR on the BG and evened out the BG with some dodging and burning.

    Canon EOS 50D, 500/4
    capture date: Saturday, 24 January, 2009 1:16PM
    exposure program: Aperture Priority
    ISO speed: 640
    shutter speed: 1/500
    aperture: f4.0
    exposure bias: +0.3
    metering: Pattern
    flash: OFF

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    BPN Member Don Lacy's Avatar
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    Very nice detail on the head of the flicker and an excellent BG and while I like the concept of him peaking out from behind the tree I think it would work better if it was in focus. With it OOF for me it is more of a distraction then a part of the composition.
    Don Lacy
    You don't take a photograph, you make it - Ansel Adams
    There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
    http://www.witnessnature.net/
    https://500px.com/lacy

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    Love it, love the mood here, the comp and the BG, light, detail and FG, all are great and made a terrific image! Congratulations!

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    John:

    The flicker looks great here, with perfect exposure and very sharp.

    i do agree with Don about the effect of the OOF tree trunk. I like the concept of the woodpecker peaking around the tree, but would prefer it to be a bit sharper and/or darker, so the bird dominates the image.

    I know, OOF is supposed to be good as far as downplaying an object, but I find it too prominent a part of the picture.

    Thanks for sharing this creative view.

    Randy

  5. #5
    Axel Hildebrandt
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    I like the details, eye contact and bird peaking. I might crop a bit off the left and I think there is a slight magenta cast.

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    Lifetime Member Stu Bowie's Avatar
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    Something different, and I like it. I feel the OOF tree works in the favour of the bird, as it makes it more prominent. Well thought out.

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    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    John:

    I took a quick pass at trying to do what I mentioned above. Not really suitable for prime time, but I think it shows you what I was alluding to.

    Let me know what you think.

    Randy

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    I like this! I didn't think I was going to from viewing the thumb nail but, upon opening it I quickly changed mind. You done more than capture the image of a bird. You have also shown/created a mood that really keeps my attention. The background, details, and composition are all well done. In my opinion the out of focus tree works. Anything that would distract from the bird would be a negative for me. Well done!

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    BPN Viewer Steve Canuel's Avatar
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    Nice peak-a-boo pose with great detail. Really puts the focus of the viewer on that face.

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    I also very much like the peek-a-boo idea. The issue about the OOF tree, maybe its th eother wau around. The tree is OOF but there is still a lot of structure that is a bit disctracting. maybe some kind of furhter blurring or reducing the darkness of the black streak on the tree would help.
    Thomas

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    SUPERB John, one of your best IMO. I love the composition, fantastic, and I like the OOF tree in the foreground, I think that it is a very important part of the image and that it is not distracting but you can try to apply some gaussian blur to the tree and see what happens. Very, very well seen.
    oops, I almost forget to say that I agree with Axel about the cast

  12. #12
    Judd Patterson
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    John, this is a wonderfully fresh woodpecker image. Too often we see the same general pattern over and over and I just love this composition. The image really has a feeling of curiosity for me...like I'm peering around a corner only to find the bird peering right back at me. Thanks for sharing!

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    Huge thanks for all the excellent comment. BPN and your guys are like gold! First I want to thank Randy for the repost. I like what he did to the OOF tree, although I think the bird comes out a little dark.

    I have tried to incorporate all your comments re. crop, colour cast and had a go at the tree. I q-masked it and copied to a new layer. As suggested I ran gaussian blur on it and reduced contrast. This reduced the impact of the tree but it's still there, which is what I wanted. Colour cast was dealt with by sliding the magenta over to the green a small amount. Hope this is an improvement. Think I'll get this one printed!

  14. #14
    Avian Moderator Randy Stout's Avatar
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    John:

    Nice job on your repost. I agree that the bird went too dark on my repost. It was a very quick pass to show what I thought was an improvement re: the impact of the tree.

    Very nice, fresh look!

    Cheers

    Randy

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