Blackbird

Gallery: AvianPosted January 24, 2015113 views8 comments

Blackbird
I find it amazing that a bird with so little real "colour" can be so attractive ! Well I reckon they are anyway
Kitchen window(in between washing up !) Background is light snow and frost in hawthorn bushes.
Small blurred blue tits taken out of background. That's the troube with garden feeder set ups.
D200
800ISO 125th @f9 70% of full image
Spot meter on bird.
Curves
Image guru
Thanks for your kind words on my last pic
Cheers
JohnR

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on January 24, 2015 at 9:46 AM

Love that fan tail. Blacks look good. Well done.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by David Bogener on January 24, 2015 at 1:08 PM

Nice pose captured with the fanned tail and good eye contact. The larger version really shows the subtle detail in the blacks that you captured. The background is busy, but not really distracting.

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

Comment posted by John Robinson on January 24, 2015 at 1:19 PM

Thanks both-appreciated. Agree about the backdrop but no real choice apart from a major forestry operation !!
Cheers
John

Registered on March 2, 2008, 535 Posts, 2453 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on January 24, 2015 at 6:47 PM

Great capture! I do notice some white artifacts? around and on the head and a few on the tail. You may have oversharpened him a tad much. That might explain the slight halo around his body, too. That said...you did a great job with the blacks!

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by John Robinson on January 25, 2015 at 6:15 AM

Thanks Lucy
The white bits are small fragments of fat the bird was feeding on. I only actually sharpened after resizing for the site. Not sure where the halo has come from. Thanks for looking.
Cheers
John

Registered on March 2, 2008, 535 Posts, 2453 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on January 25, 2015 at 10:32 PM

neat shot, John. The bird stands out so well that the bg doesn't bother me at all. I like the spread tail pose and the nice eye ring. Looking at the larger version, the white vanes in the tail feathers look a little pixelated--this often happens when narrow lines get sharpened. If you use a very small brush to mask out the sharpening along each vane, it's a pretty quick fix.