Downy on Sunflower Stalk Repost

Gallery: AvianPosted April 30, 2016112 views9 comments

I took this photo early this morning. The perch was in heavy shadow so I used +1ev to compensate for the brightly lit BG throwing off the exposure. K5 IIs 600 mm f5.6 Fill flash -2.67 ev (1/400 sec at f6.3, ISO 1000) Levels, Dfine 2 on BG, Topaz Details................Jim

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on April 30, 2016 at 11:40 AM

Nice clean image Jim. I like the head turn and the BG color is great. If mine, I might be tempted to move this guy a bit more right and a little higher in the frame. BTW, the regular looks a little soft, but when clicking on the larger version, it looks sharp. I think this was because of how the sight resizes an image. Nice work

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by Jefferson Silva on April 30, 2016 at 2:56 PM

Nice image, and I agree with Kurt about moving it a bit to the right

Registered on December 18, 2012, 162 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on April 30, 2016 at 4:30 PM

Sweet head turn, bright eye, and clean BG. Agree with the placement suggestions.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on April 30, 2016 at 5:08 PM

A simple and super sweet portrait of this handsome male JIm.

A perfect pose!

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by David Bogener on April 30, 2016 at 6:11 PM

Handsome male well captured. Like the clean background. Agree with Kurt's cropping suggestions.

Registered on October 30, 2013, 417 Posts, 1255 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on April 30, 2016 at 6:15 PM

You caught him in a great pose. Nice use of flash. Your work paid off. Agree with others regarding placement.

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 30, 2016 at 7:10 PM

Sweet pose, Jim. You ended up with an awfully shallow dof here, though I know you were trying to keep the shutter speed reasonable. Still you got the important part sharp. You might clone out the flash highlight from the eye.

devil

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

Comment posted by Jim DeWitt on April 30, 2016 at 9:16 PM

I agree with Kurt, but a very good shot considering the difficult conditions.

Registered on August 28, 2006, 1240 Posts, 8506 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on May 1, 2016 at 8:01 AM

Thank you for all the suggested edits. I added canvas on the left and cropped the image while removing canvas from the right side. I also reduced the prominent flash catchlight with a layered application of the Gaussian blur filter. I also burned the top edge of the eye to bring out the natural highlights that were present. So far this sunflower stalk is being used by 9 species of birds. So I'll be busy this morning...................................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments