Swallow

Hello everyone, This is my 1st image of a Swallow, it was taken, while waiting for tickets to Skomer Island. There are nesting birds all around the toilet blocks, and they didn't seem to mind our presence. It was fairly early in the morning, and the light wasn't brilliant, but this particular bramble perch enabled the distant BG to be rendered completely OOF. I was quite please with this one, all C&C's most welcome.
Regards,
Paul Rosser.

Canon EOS 7D
Sigma 500mm F4.5 EX HSM
Tripod/Gimbal
f4.5
1/320 sec
ISO 400
Processed in Lightroom 4 & CS4
Slight crop from bottom

I would have been really pleased with this one as well, Paul. My only (minor) criticism is that I would have liked the bird to be a little more to the left. Other than that, a great image.

David

Paul

Now even the larger version pops more with this image on my monitor too. Well captured.

Yes, a very attractive image. You have to be careful to avoid halos when you have such high contrast edges as betweeen the dark mantle of the bird and the pale green of the grass. One way to minimise this is to use the Fade command immediately after the sharpening filter - Edit>Fade then in the dialogue box change the Mode from Normal to Luminocity. It isn't the complete answer, but it helps.

Paul it loks spot on to me,really nice.

The comps a little strange for me Paul, but it's about 1.5 billion times better than any swallow image I've got

Yes, a very pleasing shot Paul.

Andy...

Great image Paul and I like the bramble perch and the BG really compliment sthe bird.

Nick.

Well captured Paul.

Nice image and a good natural perch. I may have been inclined to use a smaller f stop with the background as good as it is...to get a sharper tail.

Ian