Evening Grosbeak

Gallery: AvianPosted September 12, 2012190 views9 comments

This is from spring 2011, Northern Sierras. There were 70+ of these birds on my property for about a month.

D80, 300F4, 1/200, 5.6, ISO 500, tripod.

Exposure was difficult. Overcast day, but whites blew out. Captured as much detail as possible in whites. Sharpened bird and perch, some noise reduction in background. Comments and criticism highly valued.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on September 13, 2012 at 11:30 AM

The image has so much potential. I love the greens, the head turn, pose, etc. The whites on the wings are just too blown to make it work. I'm assuming this was a RAW capture? It would sure seem like there should be more detail in the whites unless you had to bring down the overall exposure.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on September 13, 2012 at 3:24 PM

A small amount of -EV would have helped the whites. I agree with Keith. RAW could have given you a better handle on the whites. Other than that, The BG, pose, eye contact and perch are superb.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on September 13, 2012 at 4:39 PM

Thanks for the comments Keith and Phil. This was shot in Raw. I process with NX2 and Elements 10. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, as I seem never to be able to properly tame the whites. I normally use the "darken highlights" function, but due to lack of success with it, I tried the burn tool on this one. Any suggestions?

Registered on May 5, 2011, 161 Posts, 908 Comments

Comment posted by Alan Murphy on September 13, 2012 at 6:04 PM

Sweeeet. A species I really want. Good work Jim.

Registered on December 3, 2003, 192 Posts, 739 Comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on September 13, 2012 at 7:29 PM

Jim:

Glad to hear the image was shot in RAW. I don't know about the "Darken Highlights" function. I use either LightRoom's develop module or Adobe Camera Raw (same exact functionality). If you are interested, feel free to contact me via the e-mail link, and we can figure out how to get your RAW file to me. I'd be interested in see what can be done. I do quite of post processing education in Photoshop and LightRoom, so I'm sure I could lend a hand.

Registered on November 20, 2003, 458 Posts, 4836 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on September 14, 2012 at 10:46 AM

Nice simple comp with a great bird. Love grosbeaks.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Robert Bunch on September 14, 2012 at 7:21 PM

Nice pose, perch and clean BG. I like the composition too. Whites don't look blown on my monitor but they look kind of a funny grayish color especially on the large version.