Black-throated Green Warbler

[Bill Dix]

Hiking along the AT at Raccoon Ridge, spotted this fellow working his way south along the ridgeline. Found myself running backwards through the woods trying to keep track of him and guess which tree and branch he would perch on next. Never perched for more than a few seconds, it seemed; sometimes in bright sun, sometimes shade; sometimes dark bg, sometimes bright sky behind. Underexposed this one and brought up in pp. Would have been better with higher ISO (was set for hawks in the sun), faster SS, and maybe manual exposure. But anytime I get a warbler in the woods I'm pleased; a first for me for this species.

D90 | 80-400 VR @ 370mm | ISO 320 | 1/800s @ f/7.1 | Ap @ -0.7 EV | HH

[John Guastella]

Beautiful watercolor-like BG, Bill. Nice colors on the bird as well. Looks like the focus point is on the bird's body - perhaps a bit more sharpening on the head is called for? Also, there's some graininess on the tail which would be easy to clean up with selective NR.

You might consider moving the bird up a bit in the frame. This would de-emphasize the somewhat steep perspective.

John

[Arthur Morris]

Yes to sharper on the body but only by a bit. Bummer that the bird angled itself slightly away from you just an instant before you made the image. There seems to be a color cast. I will be right back.

[Arthur Morris]

Too much R & G, not enough B. Did a 50% Robert O'Toole average blur color balance for the repost.

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Artie. The repost helps the color of the bird, and the predominantly red/green areas of the BG. I had actually desaturated the blues of the BG slightly, since I thought they overpowered the subject, and in my opinion the repost brings them back too much in the blue areas (although improving the red/green areas). Perhaps just some selective desaturation in the overly blue areas would do it.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW and good plan.