Irish Colourful Bird !
Well not just an Irish Bird. This is a Blue Tit (Titmouse to give it its full title). Taken in my back garden (also know as yard for the people in the colonies :D). The garden is quite dark and because it was in Ireland there was very little light but I thought this turned out quite nice. About a 30% crop.
Let me know what you think
Michael
D40, 500mm, 1/100 @ f7.1, EV -1 1/3, ISO 640, Metering:Pattern
Hi Michael - gorgeous bird - exposure looks good and sharp were it needs to be.
Like the colours - Good HA and nice clear sharp eye.
As presented I might crop some more from the top - a little too much negative space up there for my tastes.
(Id crop about 1/3 off)
Also it would get rid of some of the Cloning artefacts that are up there.
Looking forward to seeing more :)
That is what my eyes are drawn to, then cloning job in the BG.
When you clone like this, I after you are done, I would drop the opacity a bit until it looks normal.
I wonder what you did you use for cloning.
Hi Michael, I've found out the hard way that cloning requires a lot of care and attention to detail. I do like the BG, but would crop as suggested by Lance. Also, my eyes keep coming back to the branch, may consider darkening it a bit. Lovely bird.
I must have been asleep when I did the cloning - I'll try again and crop as suggested and repost.
Thanks
Michael
Hi Michael,Good advice above and agree with the crop suggestion.
A good way to spot cloning artifacts is to put a black backround around the image in PS. This has a tendancy to enhance the spotting of any mistakes...
Often, a good way to find cloning mistakes is to open a levels adjustment layer (or curves or hue/sat ...),
close it without making any adjustment, and change the blend mode to screen.
In addition to the cloning problem, there's slight blue cast ...
Repost took out the blue cast. Agree with a crop from the top, but wonderful image that just needs a few tweaks.
Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions. I have redone the image and here is the result - very close to Davids's post.
Thanks again for all the help
Michael
The repost is a very nice improvement over the OP. It's a very beautiful bird indeed. Judging by your shot details this was taken in poor light? If so opening the apeture right up to get a faster SS would give you just a bit more detail.
Another fine thread with lots of useful information !!!! Last re post working fine, just needs more room !!!
Are you sure about this, Mark? This is a very small bird and I think most of the "detail" is already pretty much there. I think that opening up is going to reduce the depth of field and put more of the bird out of focus. It is a pretty low shutter speed, I agree, but I think he got away with it this time! ;)Originally Posted by Mark Young
Repost looks good, albeit a bit tight at the top for my taste.
Gerald
Just for the record, I cropped my repost only to isolate the areas where the blue cast was most noticeable. I wasn't suggesting a crop. :o (Though I would take some off the top.)
My train of thought was a faster SS would give him a bit more detail in the bird, but you're right, it would do so at the expense of reducing the depth of field which may make the back half of the bird more out of focus.
I can't help myself, I'm on a never ending quest for more detail!! :D
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