Grackle Portrait

[David Ornstein]

40D, 400mm hand held, 1/250 @ f/5.6, ISO 800, EV 0, Manual

[Jim Neiger]

Hi David,

This looks like one from your day on the lake with me. I like the close up portrait and the way you captured the colors on the head and back. The dark areas are lacking in detail and there is a bit of noise in the bg. Did you sharpen the bird selectively? If not that would reduce the bg noise. If so, blurring the bg a bit would help. I like the other Grackle portrait we looked at on your PC better.

[Lance Warley]

I really like the way you captured the blue-on-black lumenence. Nice work.

[David Ornstein]

Thanks Lance. The light was right at that moment.

[David Ornstein]

A question, Jim: The black chest isn't blown (the RGB is about 10,10,10) so do you think the detail loss is due to DOF? It was 400mm @ f/5.6 from about 10 feet.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the composition and BG and agree with Jim's comments. Particularly the eye looks a bit soft.

[Jim Neiger]

Hi David,

There just wasn't enough dynamic range to get the bird exposed properly and get details in the dark areas in shadow. You may be able to get a wee bit of detail by applying the SH tool to the black areas, but it would have been better to try for a position where you got even lighting on the whole bird. That is why I liked the other one better.