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Another Cedar waxwing
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Another Cedar waxwing

by Joe Paratore

Gallery: AvianPosted April 17, 2010253 views10 comments
This is the next sequence shot of the cedar waxwing as of my last post.
I like the wing action on this one. I backed off on the saturation as a few suggested from my preceding post. Also crop this one to vertical. 60% of original. Did some noise reduction on part of the BG. Haven’t made a decision on the NR program as of yet .Trying out Topaz & Neat Image so far.
Thanks every one for your suggestions.
Same Stats.
Canon D50
500mm
F/4
1/1600
Iso 640
-0.33 comp
Flash did not fire

Comments

10 comments
Comment posted by Paolo De Faveri on April 17, 2010 at 3:06 PM
I love the wing action too Joe, even because the rest of the Cedar looks very sharp. I like also the soft pastel renditions of colours on the bird, they really stand out against the vibrant greens in the bg. In my opinion it only lacks a bit of space above. The bird looks like he's looking at something that is out of the frame. Since this is a 60% crop I think you could easily do that, if that's your intention.

:wavey:
Paolo
Registered on August 29, 2007, 318 Posts, 1651 Comments
Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on April 17, 2010 at 3:21 PM
Joe, great action shot. I see why you used the comp you did with the leaves below the bird ending the way they do. My eye still wants more room in front, but not sure what the best comp would be here. A tough one for sure. To me the colors look a bit over saturated. Also, the amount of noise in parts of the bird and BG are a bit more than I like to see. I have a 50D and would not shoot at ISO over 400 because of the noise issues. You might have been able to get your ISO down to 400 and still had enough SS for this shot. Just a suggestion pertaining to the 50D
Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments
Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on April 17, 2010 at 3:21 PM
I agree that it's a little tight on top, but this is still very pretty. The open wing pose is different and the distribution of the buds is nice. I found six waxwings the other day, but I blew out the highlights in every shot I was able to get without leaves in front of them! Nice capture.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments
Comment posted by Joe Paratore on April 17, 2010 at 3:23 PM
I had nothing to work with from the top.Wish I did. I agree.
Registered on January 31, 2007, 40 Posts, 160 Comments
Comment posted by Monica Siri on April 17, 2010 at 4:04 PM
What a wonderful action you captured, Joe! Really nice image.
Registered on September 20, 2009, 132 Posts, 3764 Comments
Comment posted by Dan Moore on April 17, 2010 at 5:06 PM
I know that if it is not there than you can not do much about it but enjoy what you got. This is still an enjoyable shot to say the least.

Dan
Registered on February 11, 2010, 143 Posts, 1248 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Ditch on April 17, 2010 at 6:47 PM
Nice pose and action. I agree it could benefit from a bit more room at the top. There's still a lot of noise in the image. How much did you need to adjust exposure in post processing - an underexposed image will really show noise following exposure increase in PP.

The major issue for me, though, is the saturation. Although this isn't as overdone as the previous post it is still way beyond natural. Almost half of the image is out of gamut. I think the greens could be pulled down 40-50 points - that a huge oversaturation problem. You don't say if you shoot in raw or jpeg - if jpeg I'd make sure the camera has any saturation settings turned down.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments
Comment posted by Cheryl Molennor on April 17, 2010 at 7:02 PM
I'm still jealous and now even more LOL.. Nits noted but my biggest was wanting more room on top, but I love the leaves on the bottom and leaving that too would put you to centered sooo Ahh whatdoyado? Dunno. I still love the capture.
Registered on June 30, 2009, 300 Posts, 5051 Comments
Comment posted by Dan Harbour on April 17, 2010 at 11:22 PM
Great action, wonderful complimentary and interesting perch. Looks like serviceberry. :toast:
Registered on January 4, 2008, 113 Posts, 2416 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on April 17, 2010 at 11:32 PM
Gorgeous, Joe. Incredible pose and I like the included habitat. If you have any room above the bird, it might work better to put it back. With all that energy and concentration upward a bit more room there would help. :toast:
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments