Eastern Phoebe

[Warren Spreng]

• Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Macintosh)

Another one from my time in MI. Not the most exciting bird in the world but a beautiful singer and they tend to be curious of people and like to sing from exposed perches! I wish more birds were like this!

Canon 7D Mark II, Tamron 150-600mm, 600mm, ISO 800, 1/800, f/10, HH, early morning, clear skies.
In LR brought down Highlights, in PS CC cropped 30%, cloned some OOF branches from the BG and did NR on BG.

 

[Tim Foltz]

Nice Shot Warren, just a tad bright but not much IMO, very nice.

-Tim

 

[Adhika Lie]

This is an amazing pose. I only think the breast is a little bit bright on the right side (from our perspective). Does the bird look a little crooked? Maybe a slight CCW rotation? I should learn to appreciate the little brown bird more.

 

[Jim Keener]

I like your bird. Noble little creature. The focus looks spot on, and the catch light in the eye is ideal. My one concern is the bright blue background. What do you think of taking down the blue saturation a bit?

 

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, the bird is sharp and the blue sky is a bit funky. Maybe try reducing the CYAN in the BLUEs in Selective Color...

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[Warren Spreng]

Thanks for the comments! I'll look at some adjustments and do an RP. The sky was brilliant that day, we always refer to that as a Michigan Blue sky!

 

[Glennie Passier]

Late to the party Warren. This little bird is good and sharp with a nice pose. Artie mentioned the blue sky; we have skies like that and more and often I think it's sad to tone them down. I looked at your image last night and thought my eyes were getting tired, or maybe a sip too much of the red wine, but I thought the same again today. There seems to be a VERY slight pinkish light on the RHS of the bird and perhaps on the branch in front? It seems I am having getting the colours right too, and the suggestion has been made that maybe my monitor is not up to speed, so take the comment with a grain of salt.

One final tiny nit. The bird needs a manicure. Just a little bit of blackish toe nail polish should do the trick.

 

[Warren Spreng]

Late to the party Warren. This little bird is good and sharp with a nice pose. Artie mentioned the blue sky; we have skies like that and more and often I think it's sad to tone them down. I looked at your image last night and thought my eyes were getting tired, or maybe a sip too much of the red wine, but I thought the same again today. There seems to be a VERY slight pinkish light on the RHS of the bird and perhaps on the branch in front? It seems I am having getting the colours right too, and the suggestion has been made that maybe my monitor is not up to speed, so take the comment with a grain of salt.

One final tiny nit. The bird needs a manicure. Just a little bit of blackish toe nail polish should do the trick.

Thanks Glennie! I wondered when someone was going to note that pinkish cast. The part in the sky is from an OOF branch that I thought was behind the bird and now I think it was actually in front and has made that one foot look funky too! I swear I had a clear line of site but this would explain the trouble I had removing that tint! I'm going back to the raw to see if that is even fixable!

Agree with you on the sky, we will often comment about how unreal the blue looks on certain days!

 

[Glennie Passier]

On a side note Warren, Artie mentioned reducing the blues in the "Selective Colour". I hadn't used that tool until today. It took some getting used to, but I think it is a very handy one to have up your sleeve.

 

[Warren Spreng]

On a side note Warren, Artie mentioned reducing the blues in the "Selective Colour". I hadn't used that tool until today. It took some getting used to, but I think it is a very handy one to have up your sleeve.

That is a tool I use quite frequently due to its effectiveness in removing Magenta tints in Astrophotography. I tried that in this image and it didn't work as I had hoped. I did go back to the raw image and looked at a number of shots in this series and it is an OOF branch/leaf that is in front of the bird so don't think I'll work on this one any longer. When I look closely it affects too much of the bird so will look for another opportunity to catch one and make sure I have a clear shot!!

 

[Bob Miller]

HI Warren! My only suggestion is to tone down the blue sky a bit as already suggested. Otherwise spot on!

 

[Warren Spreng]

Thanks Bob!