White-breasted Nuthatch

[Bryan Hix]

Just organizing some files from this fall and came accross this one. I like the angle of the bird on the perch, it's pretty sharp, and I liked the BG. I didn't use a fill flash on this one, so I am not sure if that would have improved this or not. There are some funky pixels in parts of the BG, but it's not on the larger file, so it could be from the conversion for the web. Maybe somebody can help me with that. Looking forward to any improvement advice.

Canon 1D Mk3
Canon 500mm f/4 with 1.4x TC
ISO 1000, f/6.3, 1/320th
Av mode, -2/3 comp, Eval
No flash
Slightly lightened shadows in PSE7, selective USM

[Bill Dix]

Bryan - I like the alert pose and HA. Good detail. BG looks pretty good on my machine except for a tiny hint of halo at the head and lower mandible. Maybe a slight blue cast to the breast feathers. Perhaps someone else could advise on the funky pixels, but to me this is a nice capture.

[Luis Villablanca]

The artifacts that you mention are probably due to the jpeg compression. You may try saving a jpeg at max. quality and see if they are gone.

Anyway, I like the background, perch, detail and pose. I just wish the shooting angle had been higher, more at eye level.

[Doug Brown]

Image looks good to me Bryan. I get those same areas in the BG when I save for web on images with very gradual color transitions.

[Dan Busby]

I like the BG too. Yes, the bird looks a bit blueish but it's a great pose and good sharpness. I like the linear lines created but the bird's pose and the branch, although there is a bit too much space beneath the branch for my liking.

[Bryan Hix]

Here's a re-post with an adjustment made to the color cast and a reframing. Thoughts?

[Doug Brown]

I would have left the top unchanged and cropped maybe a little less off the bottom.