American Goldfinch

[Peter Farrell]

I have been working on my backyard set up. I switched from straight Nijer seed to a nijer/fruit/nut mix in my tube feeder and the Goldfinches have returned to my yard.
This was a bigger crop than I have been doing recently but I thought it held up well.
Worst thing was the sun popped out from heavy clouds right before this one perched.
I ran S/H selectively on the perch, some soft brush painting and blurring for the BG.
I fixed some hot spots on the head, back and tail of the bird using selective cloning. blending and burning. Also NR on BG
SonyA700, 70-400G @400mm, f6.3, 1/500, iso 1000, on tripod.

[Tom Redd]

Nice creamy BG, Peter. Good head angle. Good post.

[John Chardine]

Nice Peter. BG and perch are very sympathetic. Perfect pose and head angle. I would consider some other, tighter crops including one that puts the eye close to the top-left ROT intersection. I see some noise in the bird, some of which is colour (chroma) noise and very easy to remove without losing detail.

[Allen Hirsch]

I see some noise in the bird, some of which is colour (chroma) noise and very easy to remove without losing detail.

John: how can you tell that it's chroma and not luminance?

Head angle, eye contact, and complementary BG make this a nice image, Peter.

[Dave Leroy]

Nicely done Peter.

I really like the pose, creamy bg and perch.

To follow up on John's suggestion I wonder how a vertical crop would work getting the eye into position.

Dave

[John Chardine]

John: how can you tell that it's chroma and not luminance?

Head angle, eye contact, and complementary BG make this a nice image, Peter.

Allen- If you look closely in the box you can see minute patches of green and red. A mild blur of the A and B channels in LAB colour removes this.

[Peter Farrell]

Allen- If you look closely in the box you can see minute patches of green and red. A mild blur of the A and B channels in LAB colour removes this.

John, Thank you for your critique I process with Elements 8 so I dont have the ability to correct the noise as you suggest. As i said in my original post it is a large crop.
Thanks to everyone else for your comments.
Petr

[Allen Hirsch]

Allen- If you look closely in the box you can see minute patches of green and red. A mild blur of the A and B channels in LAB colour removes this.

Thanks for the explanation & illustration, John.

Peter:

Have you tried Lightroom? I find it easier/better to use than Elements for just about everything except cloning/healing.

[Peter Farrell]

Thanks for the explanation & illustration, John.

Peter:

Have you tried Lightroom? I find it easier/better to use than Elements for just about everything except cloning/healing.

Allen, No I have not tried Lightroom. Unfortunately the photo budget is at zero as I have been out of work for 18 months. Maybe I can download a free demo.
Peter

[pat lillich]

hey Peter, thats a gorgeous image. Love the background, especially the color against the bird. We have some of these in our backyard too - could you tell us - what kind of tube feeder is it? We have the mesh bag and the wiremesh tube - or do you use the long tubes with the round holes at intervals? I haven't seen nijer mixed with nuts and fruit - do you make your own?

[Peter Farrell]

hey Peter, thats a gorgeous image. Love the background, especially the color against the bird. We have some of these in our backyard too - could you tell us - what kind of tube feeder is it? We have the mesh bag and the wiremesh tube - or do you use the long tubes with the round holes at intervals? I haven't seen nijer mixed with nuts and fruit - do you make your own?

Thank you, Pat I use the long tube with 6 feeding ports that have small holes. The seed I described is a custom blend that was given to me as a gift. It is far too expensive for me to purchase anymore. When I run out I am going to try a mix of Nijer and Red Millet which I understand works good as well. Scot sells a mix of Nijer, Red Millet and Sunflower Chips, but thats expensive as well.
Peter

[Julie Kenward]

It's a beautiful image, Peter. I'm glad you posted it so we could get a little lesson about noise from John.

I also use the kind of feeder that Peter uses (the sock ones will break with one big Starling hanging off of them.) I use a mix of nijer seed and small pieces of sunflower seeds that my birdfood places mixes up special. I have a full house almost nonstop.