Buddies

Image Critiques
1

Buddies
Buddies2000Ă—2000 1.05 MB

Critique Style: Standard

The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.

Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical

About This Image

The baby Bluebirds have been very busy hunting for bugs in nearby open fields, and these two took a short break where I could capture them.

Feedback Requested

The morning fog had broken and the sun was out, so I was able to stop down a bit, keep the SS reasonable and drop the ISO to 400, but there was some thermal mixing causing a problem with sharpness. The image was just too cute to delete so I used LR denoise and then moved the sharpening slider up a little.

Technical Details

Camera: Canon EOS R5
Lens: RF200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM + EXTENDER RF2x
Focal length: 1600mm
Shutter speed: 1/350s
Aperture: f/19
ISO: 400

Processing software: LR and PS
Major adjustments: Brought up Exposure and Shadows
Blending/stacking: This is two subsequent exposures at 20 fps, with different birds sharper in each due to the one on the left just starting to move in the second frame, which presumably caused the AF to jump to the one on the right for the second exposure.
Other notes: Cropped from the left and a bit added to the top, Tripod.

2

Diane-You did a real good job with this image, as both birds look very sharp to me. Good idea to blend two images. Well done.

3

Hi Diane,
Love the way the subtle BG matches the color of the birds.

4

Thanks, @Ted_Forman and @santhru ! I feel like there is a bit of a blue cast here, but trying to correct it made the birds too brown.

5

Nicely done Diane. Great job blending these together. Fine details and poses. I like the curvy perch. At full size, I see a couple of small sensor spots in front of the left bird. Very nice image.

6

Thanks, @Allen_Sparks ! And thanks for noticing the spots – I got careless. I just removed them in the master file so visualize them gone here!

1 Like
7

I didn’t realize it was a blend until I read your notes and those of others. Yeah you did a nice job and they do look like they’re young ones.

8

Thanks, @David_Schoen ! They fledged about 3 weeks ago, and it looks like another batch is on the way.

9

Excellent, Diane. Blending a couple of images when you have a pair of birds is often the best way to go to get them both at their best. If I have a pair, I’ll often deliberately shift focus between them. It worked beautifully here.

10

Thanks, @Dennis_Plank ! I do deliberate “focus stacks” when I have time, but these guys weren’t sitting still. And I think I assumed f/19 would be enough for both but I’m not used to working at 1600 mm and that gives a lot less DOF than 1000 mm. I’ll learn…

11

Hi Diane
David Schoen’s comment reflects my own on this post. I also didn’t realize this was a stacked photograph. Which also means to did a great job, stacking the two frames.
Peter