Red-winged Blackbird Repost Included

Gallery: AvianPosted May 14, 201576 views3 comments

The other day, I toured the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the intense wind gusts made us work for every bird species obseved. I snucjk up on this red-winged blackbird in my Prius and he hung out and sang for a few minutes. The strong winds blew the bird's feathers into the avian version of a bad "hair" day. K5 IIs, 300mm f4 (1/400sec at f7.1, ISO 500), Crop for comp, levels, highlights and shadows.....................Jim

Comments

3 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on May 15, 2015 at 11:47 AM

I love the wind-blown look, Jim. Personally, I'mnot that fond of increasing the exposure of black subjects to get more detail in the plumage-this guy is starting to look gray on my monitor (which my software claims is calibrated).

devil

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by Catherine Reilly on May 16, 2015 at 1:05 AM

Overall, the shot is nice, Jim. I have to agree with Dennis, though, on the treatment of this black subject. Still, the bird looks intense in its pose, which adds interest along with windblown feathers. Nice touch of environmental elements in there, too.

Registered on August 16, 2006, 603 Posts, 9192 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Zablotny on May 16, 2015 at 7:19 AM

I toned down the brightness, adjusted curves to bring up the blacks. I printed my original and the black is pretty close to what I saw out in the field. The jpeg version was much brighter on the monitor than the print proof. Hope this one works better. Thank you Dennis and Catherine for the critiques crying ..............................Jim

Registered on January 17, 2004, 705 Posts, 3594 Comments