American Goldfinch 2
Taken at my backyard setup. Mid morning, partly cloudy. Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f6.3, 1/500, iso800, tipod. PSE8, NR on BG, painted out some brighter areas of bg with soft brush and then blurred bg. On bird I cleaned up the bill, linear burn on bright whites, slight contrast boost and sharpen.
Nicely exposed and I like the perch. You have apretty productive back yard set up.
A couple small things I noticed. A bit better ha would add more viewer contact with bird.
From the look of the photo it looks like the perch is higher than the camera on your tripod. I am just wondering if there is a way to get them at same level?
Dave
hey Peter - lovely color, and the detail in the feathers is really nice. Love the background too. Wish his head was turned a little more towards us. When we get back after a trip this next week - going to try to add some fruit/nuts per your suggestion to our finch feeder and see if we can get a few more in here too. Really want to be taking pics like this.
I agree wtih the others about the HA but the main problem for me here are the artifacts all over the front of the bird. Either this has been aggressively sharpened, highly cropped or needs a big round of NR - not sure which. The main pieces of the image all work well together - beautiful BG and a nice clean image but those artifacts are totally pulling my eye from the overall bird.
Thanks for the comments Dave, Pat and Julie.
Julie, This is 50% of FF, I should have mentioned that. Sharpening is an area I have trouble with on fine feathers. I don't always know when to stop. Would it be possible for you to show me the areas of artifacts you are talking about so hat I can better recognize them in the future.
Thanks again, your critiques are very helpful to me.
Peter
Peter, I'm seeing what looks like chromiance (color) noise or sharpening artifacts (not sure which) all over the breast and white area o the tail on the bird. They look like little gray squiggels (so to speak) and I am fairly sure they come from noise but am just not sure.
Thank you, Julie, I see what you are talking about. Can you tell me, as far as sharpness, how does the head area look?Originally Posted by Julie Kenward
Thanks, Peter
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