Backyard Setup. Overcast early morning. SonyA700, 70-400G @ 360mm, f5.6, 1/200, iso800, fill flash, tripod, cable release. I cloned out a branch lower left and a portion of perch under the bottom of the bird. some soft brush touch up on the BG. Contrast boost and slight sharpen on bird.
Now that is a top-drawer image Peter. Really love it. A classic portrait. Beautiful BG, pose, head angle, composition, perch, light, and nice and sharp. You have captured a great bit of action with the beak open. I see a a little noise in the BG that you could remove but it's not distracting to me. The only thing I would do is remove the flash catchlight and perhaps lighten the natural, diffuse catchlight to accentuate a bit more. Very well done on this one.
Last edited by John Chardine; 02-04-2011 at 04:20 PM.
Peter, don't you love these birds? They have the coolest sounding calls and are quicker than lightning. I agree with John on changing the catchlight - its far too harsh in this instance. I selected the eye and did a curves adjustment to bring out the natural catchlight at the top of the eye and then cloned out the flash catchlight. I also rotated the bird in the frame a bit. This is a trick we learn down in the Macro Flora forum. Things look better with a bit of a diagonal in them so I rotated and recropped, moving the eye higher than the tail and putting the eye in the UR ROT's position. See what you think...
John and Julie, Thank you very much for the critique and advice.
I actually ran NR on the Bg and it looks better in the full size version. I am just beginning to use flash with my bird photography. I flipped a coin on which catchlight to remove and, I see now, made the wrong choice. Julie I remember about the rotation from posts I made in the Macro Flora forum. Grat idea for this image and I definetly like your repost.
Thanks again,
Peter
Nice eye work by Jules! I am eye-crazy and am totally fixated with birds' eyes. Now I am not into adding catchlights unless it's for my own wall and it's artwork, but here is another "take" on the eye.
I looked at the OP and the pupil had a slight amount of "steel-eye" where the flashlight bounces off the retina and lights up the pupil. So first after removing the flash catchlight I used the burn tool to darken the pupil. I then looked for the brightest part of the natural catchlight and added a point of light with a small, soft white brush- just one click. This is how it turned out.
BTW Artie has lots about eye work in his famous Art of Bird Photography.
Peter. I reall y think you are getting better at the s stuff! Fine image indeed. To me it looks a bit over-flashed, just a smidge. Back it off a bit and you should see a bit more feather detail. Don't get me wrong, the feather detailis are great as is, but it could be a tiny bit better.
Losing the flash induced catchlight helped tremendously, it looks far more natural, and what John and Julie really helped. regards~Bill
Tufted Titmose
Posting Permissions
