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Waxwing With Berry
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Waxwing With Berry

by Steve Thompson

Gallery: AvianPosted November 10, 20153,307 views9 comments
One more Waxwing. I really liked this pose with the berry, but in the raw file the image was cut off about a ¼ of an inch below the tip of the tail. It needed more room. So I used content aware fill to add some canvas. I have never used it before so I’d like to hear opinions on how it turned out. I also did a little clean up with the clone tool on the fill.  I do wish I had more dof to have kept the tail in focus but overall I was happy with it.

Thanks for looking, comments & suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Large image provided for detail.
Canon 70D
Canon 400mm 5.6
1/4000
f/7.1
Aperture Priority
ISO 800
HH
Processed with Lightroom 5.7, CS5

Comments

9 comments
Comment posted by Ray Whitt on November 10, 2015 at 7:58 PM
Love the pose with the berry, great catch and nice composition,  Ray
Registered on May 27, 2011, 92 Posts, 2619 Comments
Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on November 10, 2015 at 8:51 PM
The best detail of one of these I have seen to date. Jam-up for handheld! Expert processing puts this over the top. Congrats!devil
Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments
Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on November 10, 2015 at 9:34 PM
Always love the open beak with a berry with these Waxwings. Also nice jon with the techs on tis Steve. I do wish the head turn was a tad more toward the viewer, but I haven't even seen a Waxwing in the wild, so I would still love this in my files. Also, I might be tempted to crop this to a 4x5 vertical instead of the 2x3 and loose the OOF tree limbs at the top. If they were in focus, I would probably keep them.
Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments
Comment posted by Jerry Marella on November 11, 2015 at 9:04 AM
Nice shot of this waxwing, Steve. Beautiful exposure throughout.  I'd probably crop out the top branches also.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 142 Posts, 862 Comments
Comment posted by Steve Thompson on November 11, 2015 at 9:52 AM
Thanks guy's for the comments. I was torn about removing the upper branches or not. I felt they balanced the frame out, but I will try it and see how it looks. Thanks again!
Registered on August 7, 2014, 125 Posts, 2319 Comments
Comment posted by Cay-Uwe Kulzer on November 11, 2015 at 12:19 PM
Steve,

nice details and the berry is defenitely a plus. I agree with the comment of Kurt in cropping the top leaves of the image.
Registered on January 27, 2004, 494 Posts, 4021 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on November 11, 2015 at 12:33 PM
Nice, Steve.  The content aware fill worked better than I would have thought with that much going on at the bottom.  I like it for extending canvas with a blurred bg, but have rarely tried it with something like this.  Superb detail in the plumage.  As someone else mentioned, just a tad more head turn would have been even nicer, but they don't always take direction well.

devil
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by David Schoen on November 11, 2015 at 6:17 PM
DOF is fine.  Very nice light especially on the head.
Registered on November 6, 2006, 1213 Posts, 4587 Comments
Comment posted by David Bogener on November 15, 2015 at 3:08 PM
I am impressed with your photoshop work.  I like the backside view, but wish for a little more head turn.  I like the framing provided by the OOF cedar sprigs at the top, but they could be cloned out as an alternative.
Registered on October 30, 2013, 417 Posts, 1255 Comments