The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It was gorgeously foggy this morning – a rare occurrence that demands going bird hunting at the feeders. (With coffee and a Danish.) The low light needed ISO 3200 at minimum and since I was on a good tripod I decided to risk the thin ice of slow SS rather than go higher and lose detail in the noise. (NR is great but everything has limits.) The perches are about 25 ft away and wide open is f/13, so DOF suffers. This is another focus stack – focus hit the body in one frame and was a little better on the head in the next one. Not perfect but better. It’s also a significant crop, and small in the frame helps DOF.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Only slight highlights down in LR. In PS, 2 images stacked and masked (after denoising each). Some dodging and burning with masked curves (face and back). Slight cloning on left end of perch. This is cropped to 34% of the full frame.
Critique Template
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I’m seeing some slight posterization in the BG – it’s not in the PS file and not in the exported JPEG – some sort of compression going on here – understandably.
A real beauty, Diane. We rarely get them on this side of the mountains in Washington, so this is a treat. At any reasonable viewing distance this image looks great and your perch is wonderful. No nits from me on this one.
Diane: this is an excellent outcome especially given that its a stacked image of a living object and the settings. Proof positive that not all wildlife shots be head on.
This is wonderful Diane. I love the vibrant yellos against that great BG. Nice pose/look from the oriole. With a stack? That’s really a cooperative bird!
Hi Diane
Love the coloring on this Oriole. The head turn, eye contact and feather detail are all spot on. I guess one need Lightroom to stack photos?
Peter
Thanks, @Dennis_Plank, @Richard_Sandor, @SandyR-B, @Ed_Williams, @David_Schoen and @Peter_Morrissey! Peter, Photoshop’s layers capability (along with masking) are needed for this kind of stacking. Maybe I could have used Zerene Stacker, but there was a slight tweak in the tail between frames and that’s not what Zerene can deal with. Hand masking was the way to go here, with the top layer in difference mode to allow pixel-resolution registration. (There are a few other image editors that use layers but PS is the gorilla in the room.)
I use LR for raw editing and asset management, and PS for noise reduction, cloning (although we can do more of that in LR these days), and masked tonal and color adjustments. Again, LR is introducing some of those capabilities but I like having adjustment layers that I can go back and tweak as I do more things.
What a treat to catch such a vibrant bird in the rare morning fog! The colors on this bird are striking, with the bold yellows and blacks really popping against the muted background.
Your technical decision to go with a slower shutter speed on the tripod paid off nicely here. The detail in the bird’s feathers is impressive, and despite the high ISO, noise is well controlled, keeping the image crisp and clear. The soft background and subtle bokeh enhance the subject, making it stand out without distractions. The foggy morning atmosphere adds a layer of calmness and quiet to the scene, aligning perfectly with the bird’s poised posture.
Nicely done, I like the dynamic range in this image and your speedy fingers enabled you to get several shots before the oriole changed position. Congrats on the EP…Jim
Thanks, @Jim_Zablotny! And @Dennis_Plank and @Allen_Sparks, many thanks for the EP! This was a fun image to be able to do! I can thank the nuisance woodpeckers for helping the Orioles freeze in position a bit longer than they normally would.
