Red winged blackbird singing( common bird project)

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

40D. 400 f5.6 at f/7.1. iso400. 1/500s. HH. cropped from horizontal. I took one at f/5.6 also. But I liked the BG texture here...the lower part especially. I feel it balances the top-heavy frame nicely.

All opinions welcome.

[Fabs Forns]

First, thanks for participating in the project :)

Nice fluffy pose with great blacks. Agree with you on the painterly bottom of the BG. Good catch light and singing pose. I may try and desaturate the reds a few points, a lot of detail may show there.

[Stu Bowie]

Good angled pose Kaustubh, and I like the light and exposure on the chest.

[Harold Davis]

agree with fabs on the reds. great pose and perch you got!! and i like the textured bottom also.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Thanks. I'll go back to the RAW file and see what I do about the red sat. I know at few places it touches 255 in the orange-yellow area. But other than that small area, red channel is in the 230s and 240s. Because of the reds, I find this bird very hard to expose. Unlike, other black birds like grackles or crows, you cannot get away by exposing to the right. So the light has to shine perfectly on their black feathers to capture the details without blowing the reds.