Goldfinch

[Jay Sheinfield]

Might have had a bit more DOF............I tried unsuccessfully to open the black on the wings.
Some remains of seed in his mouth, I left in. Otherwise, her he is ....................

Comments welcome....

Nikon D3s
ISO 800
1/1250 sec @f/5.6
560mm

[Mark Young]

Like the pose and eye contact here Jay. I like the composition here as well.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

I like the pose given by the bird, the flowery perch and nice uniform background. Don't mind about the seed in the mouth, but I might lighten the whole image a bit. As for the black, did you try with RAW, that might help.

[pat lillich]

beautiful colors, and love his pose!

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks for the feedback, folks.............

Jay

[Julie Kenward]

One of my favorite birds...they are such a delight to have in one's yard! I love the pose and good for you for getting one on such a pretty perch. I was wondering if you smoothed out the BG at all because the area at the very tip of the tail seems to be a little different green than the rest. You might try blending that a bit. I see your aperture was 5.6 - I bet you might have been able to squeak out a bit more tail in focus with f8 - he's stationary so lower ss shouldn't have hurt anything.

Overall, he's a beauty! Love their little black caps. I bet it drives the ladies wild!

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp with a nice basic COMP. Yellows are a bit on the dark and muddy side. Simply lightening the image would help. How are you converting your RAW files?

ps: me bad. I had neglected to adjust the angle of my laptop monitor. The yellows look much better now :o

[Jay Sheinfield]

Julie,

The BG was as is, but there was a small oof flower right at his tail that I blended out...............needs more work, I see. Yup, more DOF would be good. With more practice this type of adjustment will hopefully be more instinctual. I don't remember what I was thinking other than trying to get a good HA and the sensor on his head. I need more time in the saddle! ;) p.s. this was shot at STL Botanlcal Gardens........

Art,

I'm a Nikon shooter. I have tried ACR but, got some advise from the BPN discussion forum to stick to Nikon Capture NX2 for my RAW conversion.



Thanks folks...............Jay

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Jay, I like your finch - very pretty! Lovely colors and bg. Could you tell us what you tried on the wings for bringing up the blacks? I'm going to swim upstream and suggest that a crop from the bottom (about halfway to the tail) feels better to me.

[Arthur Morris]

Art, I'm a Nikon shooter. I have tried ACR but, got some advise from the BPN discussion forum to stick to Nikon Capture NX2 for my RAW conversion. Thanks folks...............Jay

Thanks Jay. That is one that I am not familiar with. Try to find if Hue/Saturation/Luminance adjustments for the individual colors are available. Also, we would appreciate learning how you recover the highlights in NX2.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Thanks Jay. That is one that I am not familiar with. Try to find if Hue/Saturation/Luminance adjustments for the individual colors are available. Also, we would appreciate learning how you recover the highlights in NX2.

Art,

There are a few ways to deal with specific color adjustments in NX2. I occasionally use the function LCH (Light Color Hue) where global or color specific adjustments can be applied. As in all NX2 functions, selections can be made in a variety of ways, but I use an ink dropper to select a specific color for adjustment. There is also an NX2 integrated NIK function called Color Control Point (resembles Viveza Control Point pluggin in PS) which enables various HSL functions based on control point selection.

Recovering Highlights is done through a Highlight Protection slider available in the Quick Fix pallet in NX2. Shadow protection slider recovers details in shadows. There is an additional shadow recovery function called D-lighting which works quite nicely in some cases.
There is a slick view of the Histogram called Double Threshold that shows all blown highlights and lost shadows in the image (I haven't use this much).

I use NX2 generally for RAW conversion, unless there is an exposure problem needing correction, where it excels. Otherwise I convert to .TIF and use PS.

I am still new to digital photography, so I'm sure there are other Nikon shooters that can chime in...........

Cheers, Jay

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Jay, You have written a short but very fine tutorial. I will copy it to the ER now.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Hi Jay, I like your finch - very pretty! Lovely colors and bg. Could you tell us what you tried on the wings for bringing up the blacks? I'm going to swim upstream and suggest that a crop from the bottom (about halfway to the tail) feels better to me.

Kerry, I used D-lighting function and the Color Control Point in NX2 for the blacks. I prefer using NX2 for these type of functions rather than PS. Again, I am new to digital photography, so others may have better techniques.

Not sure about the crop you suggested.

Jay

[Arthur Morris]

I agree with Kerry on the crop :) Thus the repost. Aside from tightening up the image the main reason it is better is that it eliminates the most o-o-f portions of the flower. In general, having o-o-f stuff between the subject and the viewer is a big distraction (as it is here).

[Arthur Morris]

Feel free to check out or comment on the NX-2 thread by clicking on the word here.

[Jay Sheinfield]

I'm convinced! Looks better........................Jay

[Arthur Morris]

Good. For balance, I would have liked to have taken a bit more off the bottom but I did not want to lose the little bud. It might be stronger still to cut the bud in half with a crop and then lose the half bud.