House Finch on a Stick
Pentax K-x
Sigma 50-500 (Bigma) @ 500mm
f/10, 1/500s, -0.3EV, ISO1600
Cropped to vertical format, added a little space above the head, NR with Noise Ninja, Curves adjustment, Duped layer/Soft Light Blending @ 15% opacity, Sharpened with Focus Magic, USM 10%, 40px.
Everything is nice and sharp here Albert. The background is plain and complementary to the subject. Composition is good although I think it's a bit tight on the bottom and to the right. Your lighting challenge was substantial- harsh side light. The only thing to do is move around to the left and get the sun in your back, which would have produced more even light. Here, to get some detail in the shadows, the required exposure produced some hot areas in the face. In look-back poses like this it's better if you can wait for opportunities to capture the bird with its head turned past the point of being parallel with your sensor.
I have a bad habit of shooting too tight. Now that I have 12mp vs 6mp I can back off a bit and not worry about loosing IQ when I crop. I added to the top, but I didn't think I could add to the bottom w/o it being obvious. I'm a little tight at the right because I put the eye in the 1/3 line. Probably should have lined up the center of the body instead.Originally Posted by John Chardine
As far as my shooting position is concerned, I was shooting through that window again and had nowhere to go. In this case I have to make the best of what presents itself. I had one with the head turned farther back, but the eye was in shadow and there was a shadow from the beak.
Thanks for the comments.
hey Albert, I love house finches - but have never noticed that red spot above the tail - really nice! beautiful colors and detail and I really like the dramatic sidelight and pose. did you play with warming the colors at all?
I'm still learning on the post processing - can you tell me what effect you got with "Duped layer/Soft Light Blending @ 15% opacity"?
I agree with both John and you - if you have a choice, go for the perfect lighting, but if you don't - " make the best of what presents itself"
Thanks, Pat. I like the side lighting as well. I do portraits and the feedback in those forums tends to be to increase the lighting contrast and to shoot for more dramatic lighting, rather than even flat lighting. I thought it worked pretty well here. Yes, I did adjust the WB to warm the image slightly.
The "Duped layer/Soft Light Blending @ 15% opacity" has an effect similar to LCE (Local Contrast Enhancement, which is usually done with USM at a low % and large radius) but also gives more saturated colors. The amount of opacity will vary from image to image and is adjusted to suit.
Regards.
Lighting parameters are not always transferable between different modes of photography. What works for landscapes or people portraits may not work for wildlife. In general, side lighting does not work for wildlife portraits. However, rather than take it from me, I would highly recommend Arthur Morris' Art of Bird Photography I and II, and careful study of the many outstanding wildlife portraits on this site.
Excellent pic. Great detail and nice eye contact. I do agree about the hot spots on its face, but still a wondeful shot. Well done.
I think perhaps the degree of sharpening is also playing a part in how hot some areas of the image feel, perhaps backing off the sharpening selectively in the brighter areas would have helped as well.
I think you did a great job on this little finch.
It's sharp and the comp is very good and original.
I like the dark BG. Makes the finch stand out nicely.
Thanks for sharing.
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