Black Capped Chicadee - First Avian With 7D

[Ed Cordes]

I got home from work and decided I had a few minutes to try out the 7D for real - not just testing. I made this image late in the day under failing light. I know the perch is less than ideal, but it is what I had.

7D with 500 f4. Evaluative metering at ISO 800 with EV -1/3 and f4 with 1/125. This represents about 33% of the original image. I processed in LR and then CS4. In LR I adjusted the luminance noise to taste leaving the chroma noise at the default 25.

Thanks for looking. C&C welcome.

[Ilija Dukovski]

Nice bird, I don't mind the perch, I would tone down the white patch
on the neck, also the speck on the cap could be removed.
The BG is excellent with the blending colors, is it natural?

[Harshad Barve]

lovely compo and sharpness , nice BG
TFS

[Ed Cordes]

Thanks for the comment Ilija. Yes, the BG is natural. The left is our red Japanese Maple and the right green is another bush. Both bushes are about 30-40 feet behind the bird so they are OOF at f4. Thanks for pointing out the speck on the cap and the hot spot. I thought I had the spot toned down, but apparently not enough.

[Malcolm Benn]

I don't mind the perch and I do like the pose but what I seem to notice more than anything is how much of the perch is soft and unfortunately distracting.

[arash_hazeghi]

Very nice Ed, like the BG, perch is fine too I'd just tone it down a little bit. I would also sharpen the beak and eye area a bit. Lovely image, TFS.