Southern Scrub-robin

Very nice Simon, nice clean setting, Noise is very well controlled at that ISO. My preference with images like this would be to crop some of the OOF FG from the bottom, you'd have to be happy with this given it's a secretive species.

Simon,
ultra low angle, great use of DOF and excellent detail. Really nice.

The image works for me as posted, Simon. The low POV brings you down to the birds eye level which is a plus factor IMO and I think you have just the right amount of OOF foreground.

I'd be interested to know your thoughts on how the 7D works with the straight 500f/4 ?

Andy...

Wonderful shot, Simon. Love the low angle.

Simon, this is a nice image under the dark conditions. ISO 1600 on the 7D? The bird looks really nice and the NR worked well on the BG. How big of crop is this if you don't mind me asking? I too shoot a 7D and I am always interested in how others process image from this body. I like the red tones in the ground and the nice clean look at the bird. Good DOF too.

Wonderfull DOF here and as stated the low shot worked very well!

Dan

I really like the shot of this bird. Specs are right on. I'm confused by the dof here, though. Did you blur the fg or bg? Sharon

Simon,

Love the great low angle, pose of the scrub-robin and the neat reddish color at the ground level. Do you recall what the greenish areas were? Just curious because that is an unusual shade of green.

I agree with all of the previous comments. My only nit would be to crop some of the fore ground off. but the image works well the way it is also.

Cute pose and excellent detail in the feathers. Low perspective is a plus and the OOF leaves at the bottom don't bother me a bit. I agree with Mia that that background is an interesting shade of green.

I like this just as is, with the OOF foreground. With the OOF background, I like how the effect really highlights the bird itself.

Thank you all for your comments.

Andy, The 500mm f/4 works really well with the 7D, although it is heavy and quite a commitment to lug around (I use a Gitzo 3530 tripod with Mongoose 3.5 head). I normally use it with a 1.4 canon teleconverter, which focusses quite quickly. If I can get close to a bird I sometimes take the tc off. The bare 500 does focus a bit quicker and I can notice slightly better image quality as improved definition and depth.

Ron, the image is cropped from 5184x7356=17.9 mpx to 4124x2749=11.4 mxp, i.e. 64% of original. I normally convert images from raw to Photoshop format using Breezebrowser Pro (no noise noise reduction), and then deal with noise in PS using Neat Image, generally applied to the background only.

With high ISO images like this there is quite a bit of chroma noise (blotches/bands of greenish/reddish), as well as luminance noise (grain). I find Canon DPP does a very good job at reducting chroma noise, but looses detail when reducing luminance noise. So in this case I converted from raw using DPP with chroma noise reduction set to maximum (20/20) and no luminance noise reduction (0/20). In photoshop I applied two rounds of noise reduction to the background/foreground using Neat Image. So the bird only has chroma noise reduction applied.

Sharon, well spotted - aperture is f/6.3 rather than f/6. The Neat Image noise reduction applied effectively smooths the foreground/background a little.

Mia, the habitat is low, open, multi-stemmed eucalypt woodland (mallee) with a shrubby understory on red soil. The area had received heavy rain and was quite lush, with lots of green herbs as well, the unusual green is a play of the herb colours and the early morning shaded light.

Great low angle, just as this species should be seen. Excellent effort for ISO 1600

cheers
Rob

Very well done, especially under those conditions Simon and I'm referring to both your field and PS technique. The robin is mostly sharp with nice detail up front. I really enjoyed reading your answers to all the questions others asked of you - thanks for responding.

Lovely little bird Simon! Great capture.

Mike

Simon,

Thanks for answering my question about the unusual & unique color of green in the image. I visited some eucalypt woodlands while I was in Australia and was absolutely fascinated by the differences in the barks of all the different species. I was also enthralled by the white ant mounds, so much so I probably never paid attention to the ground!

Sweet low angle and shot Simon, nice job isolating him and with the low light.

Lovely depth of field. Perfectly captured.

Love the low angle and colours. This bird looks remarkably like the Townsend's Solitaire of North America Si.