young Baltimore Oriole

[Cheryl Flory]

Canon 40D
Canon 70 - 200 mm with tc at 220mm
1/250"
F4.5
Manual exposure
ISO 800
EC 0.0
Partial Metering Mode


OK, its another Baltimore Oriole. What can I say?? they were VERY cooperative at my Dad's place last July. This is a youngster.

I cloned out the vertical part of the branch on the left, and a small twig hanging down from the bottom of the branch. I like the background much better in this image, but I wish the toes were in focus. (Can I say that I deliberately made them oof??? :D ) I think the perch looks awkward-- could be due to the cut off end (tried cloning over it, and it looks funky), or could be due to not having the perch attached to anything? and it seems to be floating??? I would have left the vertical part on too, but that had a cut off end to it also.

this image was taken two days before my previous submitted image, and this one was at 6:30 at night instead of 8:30 in the morning.

well??

I'm sorry, I posted this in the wrong forum. How can I move it to the ETL forum??

[Cheryl Flory]

this is the image, as from the camera.
do you think I should have left the left side of the perch?

[John Chardine]

Hi Cheryl- You have a nice series of this bird. In this one you have some tonality in the BG. I like it. I also like what you have done from the original. Your image is well-lit and sharp. The pose and head angle are super. I would suggest a couple of things to bring it to the next level. The small branches and leaves are not a strong element in the image and I would lose them! The other thing I would do is give a little less room behind the bird and more room in front. The latter may mean that you have to clone out the upright branch.

[Cheryl Flory]

I agree on your idea on the cropping, I think it would look better with the bird moved more to the right.

[Joel Eade]

Hi Cheryl,

You captured a nice pose, good head angle, good background....using John's suggestions plus a couple of rounds of sharpening and a levels adjustment here is a repost (hope you don't mind)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Cheryl - like Joel's repost - does improve on the original image and has made the front of the breast not look so OOF. Like the BG - The leafs hanging from the branch would have been good if they were complete.

Would have liked to see a little more DOF Far foot is a little too OOF - but not a lot you could do - think you were probably approaching the MAX ISO for this camera - SS was already under pressure - so unless you could increase the ISO - You would have been struggling to stop down any - unless you have steady hands!!
Keep em coming.

[Cheryl Flory]

Does anyone know if their legs are as blue as in the original? I desaturated the blue legs somewhat in my adjustment. But are the legs really blue??

[John Chardine]

Sibley has them as blue/gray-blue in this field guide so I think the answer is yes!

[Cheryl Flory]

Thanks, John. I guess I should not desaturate them then. lol Thank you.

[Desmond Chan]

I also like the repost. Good base image nevertheless.

[Michael Henry]

Cheryl Very nice bird. Looks like you set this up well with the feeder just below the nice perch. I like the re-post as well and it is possible that this is something you could have done before taking the image so the leaves would not have to be cloned out. Either that or raise the perch so the leaves could be seen entirely without the feeder getting in the way. Seems to me that I always think about these things after I have everything set up and am in the middle of taking pictures or afterword when I'm at the computer. :o
Meanwhile it is a great base image and one I would be happy to have

[Cheryl Flory]

thank you, Michael. Yes, next time I need to make some changes in the perch. This is the first time I set up a perch, so Dad and I were experimenting.