This is a Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris), a European species that is usually not found in cities. The harsh winter drove them to a nearby park and playground to forage. They travel in groups and are very noisy and bold, chasing away all other birds from the food. Lot's of fun to watch though! I had to wait quite some time to take this image. These birds are easily scared and I think about every five minutes someone walked by to walk their dog.
Panasonic DMC-FZ18, handheld, 82 mm (490 mm eq.) w. Nikon 1.7 TC-E17ED, ISO-100, F/6.3, 1/640 sec, EC 0, pattern metering, aperture priority, RAW.
RAW processing in Silkypix, PP in Corel Photopaint. Adjusted white balance, exposure and sharpness. Adjusted tone curve to open up the shadows. Noise reduction with Neatimage.
Hi Jerry - looking a little dark and flat on my screen - I would try setting a black and white point in post processing and work from there.
Good Ha and eye contact a little sharpening to the eye could improve it. (Lighten and Sharpen)
Seeing some purple fringing along the lower edge of the perch.
Jerry, I like the composition and the way the perch goes diagonally through the image. The leg under the bird seems a bit muddy. Nice detail on the breast.
Thanks for your comments. I'm pushing the limits of my bridge camera (no DSLR) here with the TC and a considerable crop. I think there is some color fringing at the tail as well....
Lance, I'm not quite sure how to set a black and white point. Can you explain how to do this or give me a link to a tutorial?
To set a black and white point in photoshop
Open your image in Photoshop - create a new levels adjustment layer (best to do it on a new layer as it is non destructive)
Now you have a little black arrow on the left and a little white arrow on the right. What you need to do is move these sliders in to adjust - the secret is to hold down the alt key as you slide the slider.
Hold the ALT key and click on the black slider - the entire image turns white - drag the slider in until you just start to see things appear - do the same with the white slider(entire image will turn black).
The middle slider adjust the mid tones.
Hi Lance, thanks for explaining! I have used a procedure here that is kind of similar (my software is a bit different than PS): I move the black and white slider until I see that the histogram is being clipped in any of the channels. I think what went wrong here is that after setting the black and white point, I performed the curves adjustment. I think I had to check the black and white point after that again. I'll give it a try.
Hi Jerry, thanks for sharing this bird with us; I love that BPN gives us the opportunity to see birds from all over the world. I think the techs have been covered...I would like to see it after you try setting the white/black points and lightening/sharpening the eye.
Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)
