Red Winged Birdscape

[Julie Brown]

I went to a local suburban nature preserve yesterday afternoon to photograph the red winged blackbirds. My vantage point was restricted to a viewing platform but I hoped they would perch close enough for me to get a decent image. I got a new 5D MKII this week and also wanted to test the parameters of the camera (and my skill), so I shot a few hundred images until my hands froze and the light started to go. Because of the distance from the birds and having to use a huge crop-this is what I came up with to post.

Critiques and suggestions for improvement greatly appreciated!:)

Canon 5D MKII, 300mm f4L IS + 1.4X + 2X TC (840mm), ISO 3200, f9.0 @ 1/640sec, Tv, +2/3 EV, pattern metering, manual focus, tripod with IS left on

PP: Lightroom 2.6
about 75% crop
custom white balance (image was too warm)
exposure adjustment: set black and white points
tone curve: medium contrast
enhanced clarity and vibrance
split toning: bumped up highlight hue and saturation
sharpening and NR
GND to darken FG and BG
adjustment brush: darkened midground

Nik software: Viveza 2.0 and Sharpener Pro for output

[Harold Davis]

i really like this, julie. the light is nice and the bird looks good. one thing to consider is moving the bird to one of the intersecting lines of the ROT. if it were mine, i would add some room up top and take a little away from the bottom to do that. nice job!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Julie - Very nice job with stacked tele converter!! Like the light - on my screen some of the blacks look like they could be blocked.
I agree with Harold about the composition - for my own personal tastes - a little too much negative space up front - my eye keeps being drawn up there and away from your subject.
Good show :)

[Julie Brown]

Thank you Harold and Lance for the comments. I will go back and rework this for a repost.
Lance, do you mean that there is a loss of detail in the blacks? I'm not sure what you mean.:confused:

[Lance Peters]

Thank you Harold and Lance for the comments. I will go back and rework this for a repost.
Lance, do you mean that there is a loss of detail in the blacks? I'm not sure what you mean.:confused:

Blocked indeed refers to no detail on your histogram it will show as data climbing up the LHS of the graph.
:)

[Julie Brown]

I went back to the RAW file and re-cropped, then looked at the histogram. The black data did not appear to climb up the side, but when setting the black point I remember that I could not go left any further with the slider and did not want to add any more noise with fill light. This time I bumped up the darks-don't know how much that helped the image. Does it need the fill? :)