Evening Grosbeak Male

[Arthur Morris]

Had my first chance on this species at a backyard feeder when I spoke in Oregon in May. Natural perch. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/250 sec. at f/7.1 in Manual mode. Fill flash at -1 stop with Better Beamer.

To see the before and after click here.

Don't be shy; all honest comments welcome.

[Grace Scalzo]

Beautiful bird, well composed. I love the sharpness throughout the perch. Leaves are a nice natural frame. I'd like to see that bright area blended down even more. I use color effex pro and have created a custom recipie under tonal contrast where I set all the sliders to zero. I then adjust them to affect highlights, mid tones, or shadows and brush in the adjustment where I want it. Probably a pedestrian way of doing things, but I find it works for many of my photos.

[dankearl]

Very nice 3d looking photo, Arthur and as mentioned, getting the whole perch sharp is very nice.
I might be tempted to just get rid of the OOF leaf above, it sort of grabs my eye and detracts from the nice BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Beautiful bird, well composed. I love the sharpness throughout the perch. Leaves are a nice natural frame. I'd like to see that bright area blended down even more. I use color effex pro and have created a custom recipie under tonal contrast where I set all the sliders to zero. I then adjust them to affect highlights, mid tones, or shadows and brush in the adjustment where I want it. Probably a pedestrian way of doing things, but I find it works for many of my photos.

Thanks Grace. I will try it. The light area was really, really light....

[Arthur Morris]

Very nice 3d looking photo, Arthur and as mentioned, getting the whole perch sharp is very nice. I might be tempted to just get rid of the OOF leaf above, it sort of grabs my eye and detracts from the nice BG.

Thanks Dan. Different strokes. I love the leaf as it balances the COMP nicely. For me.

[gail bisson]

Very nice Artie. I like the vertical comp and enjoyed reading the before and after on your blog.Gotta love the HA! I really like the perch and dainty leaves. If the leaves in the LUC were in focus I would keep them but I am with Dan and would clone them out.
Excellent IQ.
I was reading in an Audobon article that evening grosbeak numbers are down 70% from the late 1980's. We used to have 20 + pairs at our feeders years ago but have only recently seen a female.
Gail

[Rachel Hollander]

Artie - I also like the sharp perch and the vertical comp. Beautiful image as always and interesting read on the blog.

TFS,
Rachel

[Lorant Voros]

Artie. Apart from the perfect tecs and the great subject I like the perch very much with the growing leaves. Reading your blog is always a pleasure. Thanks for sharing once again.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very lovely bird!
I don't often see one of your image with so much vegetation around it so this one is special :), Really nice light, pose, and BG. Arthur, I see something like cloning marks of some sort of horizontal lines, of may be 3mm, on top of the beak and forehead.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Mmmm, this is weird...I downloaded the image and open it in PS CS 5 and there's no flaw there. I wonder if my monitor is wrong or if there is something wrong with the display of the BPN web page.

Any ways, this is a print screen of what I am seeing.

[christopher galeski]

very nice image,nice pose,some good detail,agree on toning down the whites on the wing,agree the leaves in the top left help balance the comp.thanks.

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely bird and pose, sharp with excellent detail, good use of fill flash. In a perfect world I would have preferred to see the leaves at the top attached to the perch with a small branch but would not get rid of them. Avoiding the bright area at the BG would have been much easier than trying to get rid of it in post....

[PhilCook]

Admit to having two thoughts regarding the above leaves. Like the even dof and the light reflecting off the leaves on the branch look extra nice, and the colour and detail superb. If I look very very....very closely I think I can also see some evidence of cloning, or maybe just a dull halo following down the back edge of the bird,..... maybe not...I need a new prescription for my glasses hehehe

[Arthur Morris]

If the leaves in the LUC were in focus I would keep them but I am with Dan and would clone them out.

In our out of focus I much prefer the image with the leaves :).

[Arthur Morris]

Artie - I also like the sharp perch and the vertical comp. Beautiful image as always and interesting read on the blog. TFS, Rachel

YAW and thanks for your kind blog words. I work so, so hard there and exposure continues to grow amazingly. In May of this year the blog and the web site combined for almost 840,000 page views and for 5,680,000 hits!.

[Herb Houghton]

Hi Artie. I like the sharpness and the color tones of this bird. The upper leaves don't bother me. The comp looks fine to me as presented.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Artie, super pose, and just love your flashwork here. You have brought out the colours so well, sharp, and although the grosbeak is framed with the leaves in the ULC, removing them wont harm the image.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Artie, super pose, and just love your flashwork here. You have brought out the colours so well, sharp, and although the grosbeak is framed with the leaves in the ULC, removing them wont harm the image.

Is this the same Stuart Bowie who never removes anything from his own image :)? As above, I feel that they add to the image.

[Arthur Morris]

Mmmm, this is weird...I downloaded the image and open it in PS CS 5 and there's no flaw there. I wonder if my monitor is wrong or if there is something wrong with the display of the BPN web page. Any ways, this is a print screen of what I am seeing.

Hey JC. I am in the car on the way to 4 1/2 hours in the dentist's chair so I am not seeing anything. Will take a closer look when I get home. I do not recall doing any work around the head. Did you see the original on the blog?

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful shot. Love the background, excellent details, top notch flash work, and well composed.
Well done.

[Karl Egressy]

Nice species, and nice picture of it. Excellent details in the mid tones.
The white might have more details if you selectively darken it. (Linear burn)
I would clone out the tiny catch light from the eye as it has enough natural light coming from the top.
Nice to have the fresh bright green leaves on the perch and at the top left corner.
Love the composition.
(I drove 760 km round trip one winter day to get a few shots of them)

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Hey JC. I am in the car on the way to 4 1/2 hours in the dentist's chair so I am not seeing anything. Will take a closer look when I get home. I do not recall doing any work around the head. Did you see the original on the blog?

Hi Arthur.
Yes, I went straight to your blog and everything looks good there. I open your image in Mozilla Firefox and it looks great there too. I suspect that there is something wrong with Google Chrome.