Catbird+Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted June 27, 201086 views10 comments

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)

These birds are sure vocal!. It wasn’t too difficult to capture this one with his bill open! I can’t see the “chestnut-red” under the tail coverts here though.

I like the detail in this image. However, I had to remove a few distracting branches and an extra catchlight from the fill flash. Also, it is a large crop. I don’t see any adverse effect of the crop on the image quality. I hope that you will let me know if you do. All comments welcome, of course.

EOS 7D, EF 400mm f/5.6, 580EX II: ISO 800, 1/1000s, f/7.1, image is 2178 pixels x 3049 pixels =6.6 MP (37% of the 18 MP of the 7D). NR, some exposure adjustments and sharpening.

Comments

10 comments

Comment posted by Dan Sorochan on June 27, 2010 at 8:30 AM

Image quality is good. I would tighten up the crop even more. The area where you removed the branch could use some more work.

Registered on March 2, 2010, 30 Posts, 54 Comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on June 27, 2010 at 9:02 AM

Good pose Steve and the image quality looks fine to me. I also like the bg. I might be tempted to clone out some more of the sticks, If you're into that sort of thing.

Pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Conway on June 27, 2010 at 9:48 AM

Great open beak pose.

Details look great. I could go either way with the sticks, they don't really bother me.

Peter

Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Gilham on June 27, 2010 at 12:35 PM

Nice capture with the open bill. I agree the cloned part could use a bit more work, but definately a keeper.

Registered on September 20, 2009, 77 Posts, 489 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on June 27, 2010 at 6:09 PM

Thank you so much for the comments, everyone. Interesting: it never even occurred to me to get rid of more of those sticks. For those of you who would like to see them gone, I think the best way to do it is just by more cropping. Detail is still o.k. I think. Here is the repost.

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

Comment posted by Ronnie Gaubert on June 27, 2010 at 6:28 PM

Hi Steve,
Much better with the tighter crop removing most of the clutter in the lower right corner.. There is very minor loss of feather detail in the larger image especially in the head area. The background is very nice and I like the singing pose.
Thanks for posting,
Ronnie G.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 810 Posts, 3495 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on June 27, 2010 at 7:46 PM

I too prefer the repost Steve, for the more intimate look at the bird and the removal of those twigs. I like the singing pose also.

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

Comment posted by Monica Siri on June 28, 2010 at 10:45 AM

Steve,
I prefer the repost too. Great singing pose, background and detail. Really nice!

Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on June 28, 2010 at 2:16 PM

nice work on the repost, Steve, and a great singing pose. is this just a little dark? I'm not sure.

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on July 4, 2010 at 10:38 AM

Thank you for the additional comments, everyone. Looks like getting rid of the extra sticks was a good idea! I can't do much to increase detail over what you see here, Ronnie. However, I bet it's not the crop size that is causing what you see though. Maybe it could be a bit brighter, Brian. It's so much a matter of personal taste too: I examined several degrees of brightness before posting. Also, I'm going to check this monitor of mine.

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