Common Grackle

[Alan Murphy]

Common Grackle

Indian Lakes Estates, Florida

D300s, 400, ISO 400, f4, 1/250, +.03 EV.

While spending a few days in Florida, I went out for a few hours in Artie's neighborhood so see what I could shake out. While most people would probably not point their lens at a Grackle, I find them quite beautiful.
I added a cooling filter to the Bg as it was on the light gray side.

The whole image is on the cool side. I tried warming it up but did not like the results. Wish the one tail feather was tucked in, but you can't have it all I guess.;)

[Phil Ertel]

Hi Alan, I personally do not find any bird common as I think they are are beautiful. Hope you don't mind but I took this into Photoshop and tried to remove the color cast by added an average-blur layer, inverted the layer, changed the blending mode to color and adjusted the opacity until I achieved a color that look more to natural to me. I'll leave it up to you if you think it helps. Oh also most forgot, I like the detail and fanned tail.

[Alan Murphy]

Hey Phil, Thanks for taking the time to do a repost. love what you did, although there is more blue in the bird than on the repost. Somewhere in between might be the ticket!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I think they're pretty cool birds, and I really like them when they are displaying. You have a nice interesting flight configuration. Personally I get best images with soft light and overexposure, more than 1-2 stops, then fix it in PS (this does not work at all in high contrast,harsh light). Your image, IMO, is a bit lacking in detail, and in the black plumage it is even more so. I think 1/250 sec is too slow, and resulted in a softening of the image, although not as much as I would expect?? The re-post shows alot of noise in the same black area, as you would expect when increasing exposure of black. regards~Bill

[Ofer Levy]

How on earth you got such a sharp flight shot with 1/250 shutter speed...?! (-:
I haven't seen this bird but I find the original much more pleasing.

[Dave Phillips]

love the GIF Alan and don't think there is too much noise.
Grackles have long been a favorite of mine(for lack of other subjects).

I too definitely see it as too blue.....this is play with Alan's grackle day.....right.
A different color balance and a bit of curve tweak......just another in the mix, thanks for sharing

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Murph Glad you went after the grackle ... they are beautiful birds and difficult to nail !!

Love the flight position, angle and sharpness. Repost by Dave seems to be right on the money. Big Congrats on this one !!! A treat watching you do flight !!!

[arash_hazeghi]

Tough flight shot captured very well. The original def has a blue cast, the last report seems to be a good balance.