RWBB female

[Bill Dix]

D90; 80-400 VR @ 380mm. ISO 800. f/7.1, 1/2500s. Matrix metering @ -1.0 EV. HH. 33% crop.

This is from Chincoteague several weeks ago, taken about an hour after sunrise. Question: would it be better without the OOF reeds? they add some color and vague sense of habitat, but could be too distracting. C&C appreciated.

[Bill Dix]

Here's a version without the reeds. Better? or too stark?

[Peter Farrell]

Bill,
I like the oof reeds for as you say they add a sense of habitat. The only one I find distracting is the wide green one on the left. Maybe it could be thinned down some. The second image without the reeds might be better as a vertical crop. Bird looks great btw.
Peter

[Oscar Vazquez-Ortiz]

Like this version. Perhaps too much canvas on the left?

[Barry Schifflin]

I dont mind the reeds, either. Maybe darken them down a touch?

[Ray Rozema]

NIce pose and color. Good perch I like it w/o as much reed but agree probably not remove them all. The bird almost looks oversharpened.

Ray

[Bob Decker]

The reeds work for me... adds a nice framing element.

[Lance Peters]

hi Bill - like the pose, GOOD HA and eye contact - interesting discussion about the reeds.
Looks a tad oversharpened to my eyes.
TFS

[Troy Lim]

Bill, I like the re-post version. When I first saw the first shot, immediately I thought about suggesting portrait crop to take out those reeds. But the repost was really good. Congrats, TFS.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. As I suspected, there's not a universal opinion about the reeds. I think I'll leave them in, but perhaps experiment with some darkening or reducing somehow. Thanks for the ideas. As to the sharpening, I agree it looks a tad oversharp. When I ran one pass of USM to the bird in the jpeg (125, 0.4, 0) it didn't look quite sharp enough, so I ran a second pass at 100, 0.2, 0. I probably should have scaled back or eliminated the second run. I often don't seem to get it quite right.

[Troy Lim]

Thank you all. As I suspected, there's not a universal opinion about the reeds. I think I'll leave them in, but perhaps experiment with some darkening or reducing somehow. Thanks for the ideas. As to the sharpening, I agree it looks a tad oversharp. When I ran one pass of USM to the bird in the jpeg (125, 0.4, 0) it didn't look quite sharp enough, so I ran a second pass at 100, 0.2, 0. I probably should have scaled back or eliminated the second run. I often don't seem to get it quite right.

Bill,

I usually run one round of USM (138, 2, 4) on the big jpeg. Something to try.

[Tom Graham]

I like the reeds and also like it as a vertical crop :)
.

.
Tom