Cedar Waxwings are starting to migrate through my area. I was lucky see some in a local park.
I like this image as you can tell the Waxwing had been eating one of the berries. I am just looking for basic critique of the image.
Canon R6, Tamron 150-600, handheld. f6.3, 1/2000, ISO 500. When photographing birds I do keep ISO on AUTO .
I like the story being shared here with the image. Most anytime a Bird is doing something like eating, it adds. It certainly does here. The angle up is OK, not great, but OK. That’s always a tough one because it isn’t something we have much control over.
Technical: I don’t see any detail at all in the vast majority of the plumage in the waxwing. It looks like a heavy does of noise reduction was applied and smoothed it all out. At ISO 500, there should not be any need for noise reduction. I don’t know if you had to increase the exposure in post processing and that introduced noise? It’s a bit odd because there are details in the branches.
Thank you for your feedback. No noise reduction was done. The smoothness of the bird is what gives the bird the name waxwing, as they do always look very smooth. Only in a few places of the bird, like the small white feather can you see any detail of feathers.
Hi @terry5
Thx for your reply. Sorry to disagree with you about the smoothness. I’ve photographed plenty of cedar waxwings and they all have plumage detail. Here’s an example of what I’m referring to.
I’d love to see the untouched RAW file from your image to try to understand.
The name is also derived from this:
@terry5 - Thanks for posting this. It looks like some of the issue is the bird just isn’t quite sharp so we’re losing detail. It looks like the critical focus point was behind the bird as part of the branch that is a touch further away is a bit sharper or even back to the berry that was being consumed.
Hello, I love cedar waxwings…partly because of their smooth appearance. I have only seen the texture that @Keith_Bauer captured in young birds (as told to me by staff at the wildlife sanctuary…I am not a bird expert).
I love the colours and action here. I find cedar waxwings very hard to photograph as they are usually in a tangle of branches. The branches behind the head are a bit distracting but that is so hard to control. I cannot wait for the cedar waxings to show up where I am.
