European Starling

[nancy hazen]

Not my favorite bird, but a willing subject I'm working on bringing out the blacks without over sharpening and over PP. CC welcome.

Canon 7 D 100-400 lens
400 mm
500 ISO
f9
1/320
AP 5.7
using flash

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, did you use shadows/highlights to bring up the blacks? I'm seeing a halo around the bird that has the s/h signature. You can use levels or curves to make that adjustment without getting those artifacts. Would have been nice to have a head turn! Did this one not stay around long enough to get a look? You will find it very difficult to get nice black levels in direct sun like this, as the light just overpowers the black. Hope you get a chance to catch one of these in softer light, as they do make great subjects!

[nancy hazen]

Thanks Kerry. So that's what's making those halos. Hmmm. I just bought LR and CS5. I haven't used them yet, because I am following the tutorial in the Adobelabs. I want to learn more about using curves and better PP .

The light was harsh. It was late in the morning. Earlier that morning I went to Santee Lakes and it was very overcast and my flash was out of batteries. The saving grace of the day was the Bushtits came by to visit my fountain at around 6 and I got a couple of their pics.

Thanks for your great help.
Nancy

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, I would love to get to Santee Lakes sometime, I've heard a lot of good things about that area. Your bird photography is coming along, just remember that this is one of the most difficult forms of photography and certainly not easy, so don't get discouraged! You have friends at BPN to help.

[nancy hazen]

Thanks so much Kerry. Santee lakes is usually great, but they are changing the vegetation to more native plants, so activity is way down. Winter is the best.

thanks for your help.
Nancy

[Diego Torrentes]

It's a shame that we can't see the tail feathers and I'd like to see a different head angle with the bird looking at to the camera directly. But anyway it's a good picture. On my screen the black plumage seems a bit bluish and I guess if it could be because of the chromatic aberration of the lens combined with the harsh light. If you could correct the bluish cast (sorry I don't know how) this image could improve a lot. I'm also trying to take a good shot of these birds and is really difficult because they don't allow me to get close enough. Looking forward to seeing more.