Canada Warbler

[Paul Kammen]

A Canada Warbler from Port Aransas Texas during migration; hoping to get more here in Minnesota where they nest "up north" in a week or two.

Admittedly as I work on images, I think one thing I've always had a tendency is to saturate a bit much; so on this I dropped the saturation on the background, and also used "Color" vs. "Landscape" in Adobe RAW, and was closer to "Daylight" on Color Temp vs. "Cloudy" which had been my go to. It is tough dealing with a deep green background at times.


Nikon Z9, 1/1000, ISO 450, 600mm f/4 TC VR S at 600mm.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I feel there is a little too much contrast and I would be inclined to lift the mid tones, in general it looks a little heavy and saturated. The bird appears sharp and well detailed and you did well to catch it in the clear area. Color and Landscape tend to produce saturated high contrast images, is this what you desire?

[Kurt Bowman]

Nice job getting this guy out in the open. I might be tempted to move the subject slightly more to the left so it wasn't so centered in the frame, but other than that, I like the image.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Paul, this is the third image in succession which has the same issues regarding colour/heavy contrast/blacks, it's just too bias and so I would strongly suggest you get your monitor calibrated and or change your workflow to reduce adding Saturation & Contrast and having any light hitting the monitor. Always have the back of your screen towards any light source like a window..

No idea on coloration of subject, but if you balance out the grey of the subject to all three channels (RGB) having 50.1/50.1/50.1 so all three have the same % meaning no colour shift you get something like this. Where you then take it is personal choice. You always have the clarity & sharpness in the image.

Hope this helps.

[Arthur Morris]

Great pose. I love both versions. The bird in the middle composition works well here. Was this at some sort of set-up?

with love, artie

[Paul Kammen]

I feel there is a little too much contrast and I would be inclined to lift the mid tones, in general it looks a little heavy and saturated. The bird appears sharp and well detailed and you did well to catch it in the clear area. Color and Landscape tend to produce saturated high contrast images, is this what you desire?

I do like color and some saturation, but I actually lowered the saturation to -5 I believe for the background, and left it the same on the bird. That said I do not want it looking overdone.

[Paul Kammen]

Great pose. I love both versions. The bird in the middle composition works well here. Was this at some sort of set-up?

with love, artie

Hi Artie, the perch was located near a water drip at the Leonabelle Turnbull Bird Sanctuary. The warblers and other birds would hop down to the tree or a perch,
and then get some water, and often go back to the perch. This particular perch was a set up that another photographer brought with him. It is a lovely area in
Port Aransas, hope to be back next late April.

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree with artie - the central placement works well here because of the way the vegetation is laid out making it a well-balanced comp. I do prefer Steve's rendition, but all else looks great to me.

[Paul Kammen]

Hi Paul, this is the third image in succession which has the same issues regarding colour/heavy contrast/blacks, it's just too bias and so I would strongly suggest you get your monitor calibrated and or change your workflow to reduce adding Saturation & Contrast and having any light hitting the monitor. Always have the back of your screen towards any light source like a window..

No idea on coloration of subject, but if you balance out the grey of the subject to all three channels (RGB) having 50.1/50.1/50.1 so all three have the same % meaning no colour shift you get something like this. Where you then take it is personal choice. You always have the clarity & sharpness in the image.

Hope this helps.

Hi Steve,
Thanks, I did calibrate the monitor with my Spyder. I'll lower saturation a bit; easy to do on the background. Canadas are very vibrant yellow in breeding plumage.

Thanks,
Paul