Chickadee+Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted November 19, 200980 views9 comments

Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus): Yesterday being a sunny day I went out with the objective of really trying to use my new 7D at conventional ISO values. There was not much variety in birds at this time though: mostly just plenty of friendly chickadees. They don’t pose long for a photo. Here is one that stopped momentarily.

Not much NR/sharpening needed on this one: selective NR on the background and selective sharpening of the bird.

I look forward to learning your impressions of this image.

7D, EF 400mm f/5.6: ISO 800, 1/500 s, F/8.0
Image is 3701 x 2643 pixels (=9.8 MP or 54% of full frame for the 7D)

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Carrie O'Brien-Sib on November 19, 2009 at 7:01 AM

Steve, this is really a sweet shot. I especially love the bg. Great job!

Registered on August 4, 2009, 149 Posts, 889 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on November 19, 2009 at 10:58 AM

Steve - I like the inquisitive look of the chickadee and the detail but I'm not crazy about the BG because if goes from an unnatural looking blue to a deep grey in all sorts of varied patterns. I'd play with the luminosity, hue and saturation of the blues in ACR and see if you can get a more monotone result.

- Luke

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on November 19, 2009 at 11:54 AM

Thank you both for your comments. Looks like attention is focusing on the background in this image. I thought perhaps it would help to immediately show the original, unprocessed tiff file. Here it is. The main challenge was de-emphasizing a little branch growing out of the bird's head. Note that the non-uniform background is natural but the color is a deeper blue in the final version. I think it's a result of adjusting exposure, not color or saturation though. Anyway, here it is. I enjoy all your comments, whatever they conclude!

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on November 19, 2009 at 12:21 PM

Steve: I would simply clone a small section of the stick away (probably to where it meets up w/the other stick) which is quite minor in nature and should be relatively simple. I understand what you are saying about the exposure adjustment, but my point is that once you'd changed the exposure, it changes the colors of the blue - so in order to get them more flat and grey like you can go in and adjust the luminosity/saturation/hue to get it either close to the original or something that you like. I personally like the 2nd post better than the first but I think there is room for improvement.

- Luke

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Nate Chappell on November 19, 2009 at 12:24 PM

Nice pose he gave you here Steve, to me the biggest distraction is the heavy shadow on the bird's head, back and breast, some fill flash might have helped to reduce that.

Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on November 19, 2009 at 4:14 PM

Cute pose on this Chickadee, Steve. I like the eye contact and the bg is rather neat.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on November 19, 2009 at 8:54 PM

Steve, I like the cocked-head pose and the inquisitive look you got from the chickadee. It's interesting how different we all are. For me the biggest distraction is the large branch in front of the tail.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on November 20, 2009 at 11:34 PM

Thank you all very much for your comments. I was happy to see the diversity of opinion. You all supplied me with plenty of good ideas. However, I think changes to this particular image would be to fit a personal preference rather than to correct a deficiency. I like it. So, I think I’ll just let it be.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on November 21, 2009 at 12:57 PM

Steve,

I love the way the chickadee is looking at you, the head turn, the habitat and the blue sky in the background. The sky does not look unnnatural to me at all because I realize the gray areas in the background are simply oof branches, twigs or other natural features.

I like it as is and would let it be too.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments