We don't have acorn woodpecters in our area so I really wanted to get a shot of one, but the only chance I got was in the hot sun and 104 degrees. Tried to balance out the light with levels and shadows/highlights in Elements. Some burning to tone down some other highlights. Shot with Canon 100-400 at 400, 50% crop. Any other suggestions for improvement?
Great photograph! He looks hot! Did you happen to recently take this photograph during the heat wave here in California? If you zoom in, can you see the barbs protruding laterally from his tongue?
Nice to capture a new one!
I like the open bill/tongue, bright eye and crown.
Good display of his foot showing the grip they use.
A couple of white spots are a bit washed out, esp. on the back.
His head is turned away from us just a bit. Generally the image is more engaging if the head is towards us a bit more.
Shooting angle a bit steep, but that one is hard to control.
The image quality held up pretty well for such a large crop.
Best suggestion: start over with the RAW and see if you can recover the highlights.... I am thinking that the head angle is fine for this pose. And, you did a pretty good job in a tough exposure situation (unless you really toasted those whites....) What camera? How did you meter?
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Wow! this bird is a winner! the AW here in CR can only be found in highlands, definitively they don't like hot places! Good comments above, I guess Arthur is correct about going back to play with the image in ACR. Nice male.
Jim I like this image. Nice open bill. Artie's given you great advice on trying to recover details from the RAW file. I might also consider giving the BG a bit of a blur to soften the look of the OOF branches,
It's a woodpecker that I hope to see someday.
Thanks for the great suggestions.
Arthur, I probably did toast the whites, so I'm pretty much stuck with what I have, since I'm not smart enough to leave the camera set on Raw. Shot with best jpg. Used the Canon 40d, evaluative.
Chantelle, taken right at the start of September in the Three Rivers area and the temp was 104 while I was shooting the woodpecker.
I live in SC so it will probably be awhile before I get another chance was a retake.
Acorn Woodpecker in hot sun
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