Eastern Phoebe


Posted by matt kuchta on Fri Feb 06, 2004 10:43 am

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10D, 1-4IS @ 400, ff @ 2/3
1/80
f13
Exp -2/3
ISO 400

I took this in October - I was photographing a GBH, and I think I was shooting a head-on portrait, which is why the camera was at f13, but I can't really remember now. Oh well. I originally wrote this shot off, since I wasn't too impressed with what the canon converter did with the RAW file.

Photoshop CS, however seems to have uncovered a diamond in the rough - a keeper in my book...

cropped from horizontal to vertical - nearly full frame top to bottom. I had to do some significant levels adjustments. The BG was fairly noisiy, so I did a mild gaussian blur to the BG - you can see the noise in the bird, but since it doesn't interfere with the feather texture, I left it in. Now, I just can't decide if there's enough contrast on the bird or no. Reposts welcome.

Thanks for looking :)

cheers,
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by fredcor on Fri Feb 06, 2004 11:01 am
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It's a very good image nonetheless :) of a sweet bird.
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by Mike Wilson on Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:26 pm
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Cool colors in the bg. A little noisy but ok.
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by Alan Murphy on Fri Feb 06, 2004 2:40 pm
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Matt, It's a little light overall and could use some contrast too. Love the over the shoulder look and a great comp.
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by Bill Whala on Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:02 pm
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Matt,

This is a very pretty little bird. You have captured that very well here. I gave this the same settings as I did on your last post (less USM due to the noise) and it helps quite a bit.
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by jnadler on Fri Feb 06, 2004 3:37 pm
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Nice bird, pose, and angle. The background's a bit busy and distracting.
 

by Carol Clarke on Fri Feb 06, 2004 4:53 pm
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Beautiful little bird Matt. Love the pose, composition and colours - exposure spot on.

Excellent just as is!! 8) 8) :)
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by AlexC on Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:32 pm
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Wonderful bird, Matt!!!

Image:
Nice pose and perch, wonderful detail, the BG overpowers the bird just a bit and is a tad distracting, lovely over the shoulder look, Congrats!! 8)
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by LHays on Fri Feb 06, 2004 9:15 pm
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Matt
I agree with Alex on this one. I do think you have captured a good pose.
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by Wil Hershberger on Sat Feb 07, 2004 8:16 am
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What a great pose. Very nice focus too.
Here is a repost with the back ground toned down using the shadow highlight tool, removed the noise with NeatImage and applies a little USM.
I also darken the mid-tones a little to more closely match what a phoebe looks like.
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by matt kuchta on Sat Feb 07, 2004 1:18 pm
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Thanks Will - I think that makes the bird pop more for sure - I'll use that when I print this one.

Thanks for the comments - I like it more now that it's been "deconstructed."

:)
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by Wayne Nicholas on Sun Feb 08, 2004 9:50 pm
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The BG is a bit distracting, due to the brightness, I think. Other than that, I like the composittion and the colors of the water in the lower section.
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by Harvey Edelman on Mon Feb 09, 2004 8:37 am
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FWIW I like the original a bit more than the repost. Light, soft color with a nice complimentary BG.
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