Fieldfare

This was my first decent crack at fieldfares which have been abundant around here but flighty when approached. Shot using the car as a hide and in bright sunshine. Even the original RAW file appeared to show a very slight halo around the bird and it's a recurrent problem I find when processing a bird against a light and uniform background. I tend to sharpen a low layer and use a soft eraser to remove the layer above whilst leaving the very edge of the bird. Any tips gratefully received.

7D, 500mm + 1.4x
ISO 200, f6.3, 1/1000
Car + beanbag support
LR 2.6, PS CS4

Thanks for looking.

Hi Tim nice capture, just a pity there is shadows going across the bird.

Well timed to get him with the berry in his beak. The blue sky makes a pleasing backdrop too.

Nice capture in lovely light Tim

A fine image indeed Tim but agree with nits mentioned above.

I get the same halo when using LR2 in similar curcumstances... friendly 'experts' have put it down to a 'characteristic' of the Adobe RAW processing engine

Nice shot of a Fieldfare doing what they do best


Minor nits already covered.

Not merely a berry in the mouth, but the tongue just visible as well. Nicely captured. In my experience fieldfares have a knack for sitting somewhere where they either have twigs running across them or, as in this case, shadows. I agree that they are also flighty little whatsits as well, and I am afraid all you can do is just keep on trying ... and be very jealous of those who get them in the garden.

David

Nits covered but still a very nice capture.