Great Spotted Woodpecker (male)

[Anders Nielsen]

For the first time this winter I saw the male in our backyard. My placement was terrible as he was completely backlit. I thought I would give it a try and this is the final result after some photoshop work. I will appreciate any comment and especially those regarding postprocessing as I feel this could have been done better - but I don't know how.

The white sparks in the lower part of the image are small pieces of wood flying off the perch.

Canon EOS 400D
EF 400mm f/5.6L USM

1/320, f/5.6, ISO 800, tripod
Levels, noisereduction, shadow/highlight, crop, smartsharpen, flare cloned out.

The original image can be found here: http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...ead.php?t=3936

[Rosl Roessner]

Hi Anders,
I like your picture with the backlight. It is not the usual woodpecker-image.....
Did you use flashlight or how did you get the catchlight in the eye? Selfmade catchlight?

Usually the great spotted woodpecker comes again if there is something to eat. We have one great spotted and one middle spotted wp and they come every day to the feeding station. So I am sure you can go on making pictures with this beautiful male.

[Anders Nielsen]

Thanks a lot for the comment Rosl. The catch light in the eye is a white reflection - but I can't tell you exactly what it is (perhaps my white lens?).

[Jim Poor]

That is a pretty good bit of post work to recover this far. There looks to be a bit of noise in the blacks, especially on the wing. I like the backlighting on this, but fill flash would have helped get closer to the same result in camera.

The little bits of falling wood and such are a nice addition.

[Arthur Morris]

I like the backlighting, the BKGR, and the processing. If you could have taken one big step to your left to get more square to the bird the result would likely have been a stronger image. Later and love, artie

[John Cooper]

I am a great advocate of rim-lighting Anders so no complaints my end!! it would appear that you used some form of fill-light as the balance works well for me. If the fill was done post-process then you have done very well indeed!!