Black Phoebe

Gallery: AvianPosted October 29, 201282 views9 comments

Another bird from Sacramento NWR, a couple of weeks ago. Bird was perched nicely in a tree next to the parking area.

D300
300f4
1.4tc
f6.3
1/640
ISO 400
HH
Cloned out a couple of distracting branches, selective sharpening and noise reduction.
Comments and criticism highly appreciated.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Keith Bauer on October 29, 2012 at 11:58 PM

Jim: I think this is one of your stronger images. The bird looks great. Nice and sharp, pleasing background and your processing looks very nice. Not sure where the branches were. There are some possible artifacts from your cloning in the upper right part of the image, but certainly nothing too bad. Nicely Done!

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

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on October 30, 2012 at 12:26 AM

Sweet little bird in a great pose. Very nice perch with the lichens, and good BG.
The bird seems a little "smooth" to me, as if you applied some NR to the whole image rather than just the BG. This tends to remove feather detail and usually doesn't work too well. .
Fine image, nontheless.
Sandy

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

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on October 30, 2012 at 6:16 AM

Bird looks good Jim. I guess the cloning is the areas that are not as green. I see the URH artifact.

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

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on October 30, 2012 at 7:15 AM

Really niice, subtle detail in the larger image Jim

Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on October 30, 2012 at 2:44 PM

Thanks for the complimentary remarks everyone. Keith and Ron, I keep looking, but haven't been able to find the URH artifact. Sandy, I did noise reduction mostly just on the background. I applied a little to the bird and perch. For me, it's always that tradeoff between a little noise or loss of feather detail. With this one I thought it was a fair compromise, but you are right, it is a bit too smooth. Ron, the less green areas don't indicate where the cloning was done. The background just contained areas that were less green. Thanks again for all your comments.

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

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on October 30, 2012 at 4:23 PM

I like the contrast between the dark phoebe and lighter colored background. This image looks fine to me as posted as it was not obvious to me where the cloning was done, excellent shot for hand holding.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Oakley on October 30, 2012 at 8:58 PM

Lovely subtle colours in this Jim - very nice,
Cheers Greg

Registered on June 12, 2012, 115 Posts, 266 Comments

Comment posted by wade pettitt on October 30, 2012 at 9:27 PM

Jim, i think this looks great. I love the diagonal perch and the detail in the bird is great.

Registered on May 6, 2009, 184 Posts, 471 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on October 30, 2012 at 9:31 PM

Pleasing image with good comp and nice diagonal perch. I like the bit of lichen that has added nice color. Maybe a halo problem too though. I don't see URH artifact either.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments