Red Headed Woodpecker

[Jay Gould]

Obtained at the end of Day #1 with Jim. We were just packing up when we same this little woodpecker on a telephone pole. I did substantial cloning to the pole to remove the bolts and holes in the wood. Processed in LR and then PS for cloning and used Viveza to complete processing.

Camera: 50D
Capture date/time: 28 Sep 09; late afternoon
Light condition: clear
Lens: 300 f/2.8
Focal length: 420mm
Extender: 1.4X
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 800
Exp Prog: Manual
Speed: 1/640 sec
Aperture: f/5.6
Exp Comp: 0
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: 50%

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice capture of this beauty. Like the catch light and would go for a vertical cropping from left. Image is very noisy.

[Jay Gould]

Thanks Arash. When you say vertical cropping from left, are you suggesting to leave all the negative space on the right and reduce the pole? Noise: yup; today I spent learning Viveza (at Iguacu Falls, Argentina!) next free day I will spend on a NR program and masking the bird so as to only apply the NR to the BG.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Arash. When you say vertical cropping from left, are you suggesting to leave all the negative space on the right and reduce the pole? Noise: yup; today I spent learning Viveza (at Iguacu Falls, Argentina!) next free day I will spend on a NR program and masking the bird so as to only apply the NR to the BG.

Hi Jay,
Would crop 1/3 of the tree from left and 1/2 of sky from right, sorry for confusion. Do work on NR when you get a chance.

[Mike Tracy]

While I will commend you on your cloning job I might prefer the original pole, warts and all. The repetitive wood grain pattern is not as you would likely find au natural.

The birds cute. I might desat the reds a tad.

[Danny J Brown]

Hi Jay: The birdie looks like a red-bellied woodpecker to me.

[Nancy A Elwood]

Jay if you get Niksoftware's Define noise reduction software, which is a plug in for CS3, then you would not need to learn masking. You could do the BG selectively through that program using no masks.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Man, I don't think I've ever seen the head feathers raised so much in this species! I agree there is too much sky at right, and the colours do seem oversaturated. Sounds like you are having a blast in Florida!!

[Jay Gould]

Hi Jay: The birdie looks like a red-bellied woodpecker to me.

Thanks Danny!

[Jay Gould]

Man, I don't think I've ever seen the head feathers raised so much in this species! I agree there is too much sky at right, and the colours do seem oversaturated. Sounds like you are having a blast in Florida!!

I did have a blast in Florida - ;) in Sept/Oct; I am now at Iguacu Falls, Argentina. I am not sure I will ever get caught up enough to post "today's" images.

Just learning Viveza; will reduce saturation, additional crop, and repost. Thanks.

[Arsdel Fluesmeier]

I think it is a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Nicely done.