Downy Woodpecker +NR Dtl

Gallery: AvianPosted March 17, 2015172 views9 comments

Seems like these little guys never stop moving. I caught this one in the shade of the pine woods, so I was thankful that my mew camera could come through at ISO 2500.

Canon 7D Mark II; 100-400mm.
1/400 sec. @ f/7.1; ISO 2500
(shot using an Acratech GP ballhead in "gimbal" mode)

P.S. To answer the question about noise at ISO 2500, here's more info:
-- Shot in AV with +0.67EV exposure compensation.
-- ACR adjustments: Exposure +10; Highlights -8; and Shadows +33
-- Minimal noise reduction (18) in ACR, and then applied noise reduction to just the background in Photoshop using Topaz DeNoise.
-- See noise BEFORE NR in the 100% image in the comment below.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Kurt Bowman on March 17, 2015 at 10:46 PM

Wayne, I agree...these guys never do stop moving..but that is what makes them so much fin right? You did a great job of getting him full side view with an open beak. Nicely done.

Registered on June 19, 2008, 1005 Posts, 8028 Comments

Comment posted by John Launstein on March 18, 2015 at 12:10 AM

Hi Wayne! Great capture of this downy! I love these guys...and you're right--they rarely perch still long enough to create a nice composition as you have here. Great timing and I love the open beak. I'm not really seeing anything by way of suggestion for improvement--it's just a very nice, super-clean frame of a fine-looking subject!

Registered on April 5, 2011, 223 Posts, 1193 Comments

Comment posted by John Neukirch on March 18, 2015 at 7:07 AM

A fantastic profile view, really nice feather detail and I really like the hint of green and texture of the tree bark. Well done, no nits from me.

Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Jenkins on March 18, 2015 at 7:10 AM

Wayne I agree with the others this is a very nice shot. We have these here in Texas also and they are very quick to move all the time. Nice BG, exposure on the whites and nice feather detail.

Registered on April 20, 2008, 307 Posts, 604 Comments

Comment posted by Allen Brooks on March 18, 2015 at 8:16 AM

Great shot. Excellent detail. I like the pose with the open beak. I'm impressed by the lack of noise at ISO 2500. Did you have to use much noise reduction in the processing?

Registered on July 27, 2011, 262 Posts, 2597 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Jones on March 18, 2015 at 12:08 PM

Allen -- RE: NOISE REDUCTION
Good Question. I am quite pleased with the noise level at ISO 2500 with the 7D Mark II (but I just upgraded from a 50D).
Just looked at the Raw file in ACR -- I applied Luminance NR of only 18 in ACR. This was after I brought up the Exposure 10% and Shadows +33% in ACR.
After ACR, I did clean up noise in the background only in Photoshop (masking out bird) using Topaz DeNoise. Here is a 100% view of the actual, full-size pixels WITHOUT the noise reduction layer. As you can see, the noise in the dark part of the smooth background was noticeable before I applied NR, but I don't think it's that bad, even without the noise reduction. Remember when viewing this that the image has practically no NR from ACR (18% is so minimal that I probably could have skipped it.)

Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments

Comment posted by David Bogener on March 18, 2015 at 1:13 PM

Very nice downy image. Classic pose and an open beak. I have probably spent more hours trying to get a decent downy image (a locally common breeding species) than any other species. Thanks for taking the time to post the preprocessing example.

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

Comment posted by Steve Thompson on March 18, 2015 at 2:03 PM

Hi Wayne, I've chased these guy's around too and they are so fast, up and down, around the tree. You captured a nice pose with great detail and sharpness in the Downy. I think the big white spots in the bg would be a distraction if it weren't for the size of the woodpecker in the frame. It minimizes the effect IMO. Nice job!

Registered on August 7, 2014, 125 Posts, 2319 Comments

Comment posted by Rob Drummond on March 23, 2015 at 3:19 AM

Nice even light and detail Wayne

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