Until last Sunday I'd never been any closer to this species than a distant binocular view, so I was pleased to hear that one had been seen on Sandy Hook. I had just set up the tripod at the appointed thicket, not knowing where, when or if the bird would appear, when he suddenly popped up onto a perch that was partially hidden from me by some OOF foreground brush. I managed one quick frame, and before I had time to relocate to a better vantage, he ducked back into the dense thicket. I waited in vain for him to reappear, and I came back again later in the day to no avail. So I figured I'd better at least try to salvage what I could from my single frame. I tried every trick I know; contrast, S-curves, selectively brushing in white and black, etc. I know I'll never get fine feather detail, since most of the pixels on the body were impacted by the OOF foreground. I suppose the only answer is to hope that someday I'll see the species again. But in the meantime, I wonder if any of you knows of any other tricks or tools that one might use in a situation like this, which I know we have all come across at one time or another.
D7000, 500f4 + 1.4, ISO 1600, 1/500s @ f/7.1, +0.7 EV, tripod and mongoose
I've posted the image as the camera saw it on the next pane.
Bill- Nice job of removing the OOF object. This is not an easy fix and you seem to have achieved your goal. The object was so OOF that you probably didn't lose real detail underneath. The selective contrast enhancements you made were the key I think. I would run another round of sharpening on the bird. next time you can also wish for a better head angle!
(BTW, this is one of my nemesis birds- never have seen one properly despite being in breeding habitat at Point Pelee).
Thanks John. Yes, a better HA would have been nice. I was afraid of sharpening too much for fear of worsening the fine-grained noise, but I'll give it a try.
My nemesis birds are too numerous to catalog. I'm going to Point Pelee next May, so maybe I'll find another Chat there along with a few of my nemesis warblers.
We have these guys out here, but they always hide among the branches laughing at my efforts to get an image. I think your cleanup was very good --far better than I could produce, so I don't have much to offer.
I think you did remarkably well just getting a reasonably clear image of a Chat! I've often had similar problems - i.e. a broad oof shadow spoiling part of a bird's plumage, and wondered what to do. I had one recently of a Blue-gray tanager in Costa Rica - by dint of selective sharpening and cloning, trying to be as subtle as I could, I ended up with a half reasonable image, that I might post here. I wonder if a round of Noise Ninja, with a touch if combined sharpening and noise removal, might help here. I have lots of nemesis birds too, but the 3 "biggies" are Cerulean Warbler, Great Gray Owl and Lewis's Woodpecker.
Yellow-breasted Chat needing help.
