The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
The bg is my fire ring so if you need to move this to H&F, that’s ok.
A female Northern flicker gives me a wary glance while I sit on the dock and try to take her picture. By sitting down below the steps I was at ground level, but not invisible as you can see. Earlier I filmed her mate drilling holes for ants on the lawn. I had to do it through the window, but it came out rather well so I’ll post it when it’s done.
I know this isn’t the best shot of a bird ever, but it’s my first decent one of this species. Although this area is dirty with them, they are so skittish I can’t get near them most of the time. Lying in wait did the trick although I wasn’t really trying for these guys, I was just sitting and enjoying the day and the nature on the river’s edge.
Specific Feedback
I did my best to bring her out even though she’s got a busy stage to stand on. Thoughts? It was full sun over there so it’s a bit contrasty, too.
Technical Details
Handheld sitting down braced on dock step
Lr for this vertical crop and some work to mask the bird and the bg separately to bring her out more. Unfortunately it was underexposed by about a stop because she appeared so quickly and I didn’t change my EV setting, so I had to compensate for that. Ran a denoise AI action and then applied a bit of sharpening to the DNG. A bit of distraction removal in one spot. Boosted vibrance & saturation a bit.
I think I will move this to Human and Fauna, Kris.
Excellent detail in the flicker and a nice head turn, Kris. I like the fact that the “yellow shafts” show through on the wing. With this head turn, I think a bit more room on the right and a bit less on the left might work better if you don’t have too much junk on the right to deal with. The pile of sticks isn’t ideal as a background, but it’s not too bad. If you want to take out the sticks protruding up from the pile, it might make for a tidier background. The one that bothers me, though I didn’t notice it at first, is the cut end half showing above the bird’s left shoulder.
We have the red-shafted out here and they are also very skittish. I usually end up getting them from my blind in the winter on those rare occasions when we have snow (which brings three or four species out that don’t normally come to my blind).
Kris, I like the way he turned and gave you the look. I am not familiar with these, I don’t think we have them in this area, so I am enjoying his beautiful markings.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank & @Shirley_Freeman - I will play with this a bit and see if I can make the background a bit less intrusive. Flickers are so much fun to watch as they stab, stab, stab at the ground. But so shy and fraidy. Silly birds. I will repost probably tomorrow either before or after picking up our new, ridiculous truck.
Thanks for the suggestion to work on the stick pile. I put a new image in the OP after messing with the Remove Tool in Photoshop. That thing is a magic wand, no doubt about it. Not every remove was perfect at first, but a few clean up passes and I think I’ve got it about as good as I can make it. Thoughts?
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman & @Dennis_Plank - I don’t know why I wasn’t more aggressive with this earlier, but thought I could do a “minimal” edit and get away with it. The Remove Tool gets little press because Generative Fill came out in the beta version at the same time and everyone is talking about that, but I don’t use beta software so the Remove Tool for me is the big thing for this release. It doesn’t do everything perfectly and I sometimes wish you could get it to recalculate like you can in Lr and with CAF in Ps, but going over the weird part it might create works well. Sometimes I use the Remove Tool again, but sometimes the healing brush does the trick. I think the difference is AI and the cloud which loops into Firefly and Adobe Stock. Truly remarkable.
Nice head turn here and a pretty good look at her. I might have darkened the bird just a bit. Like you and Dennis, this bird is my nemesis. I just can’t seem to get close enough for a really good shot. I did get one on the ground earlier this spring, and might post it later, but it is far from a great shot. I think you did all you could here.
Thanks @terryb - Now I know the stealth approach can work, I’ll see what else I can do. They love ants and my yard is full of them so get to work, birds! Gotta find some music for the video of the male. He’s a hoot.
Since we don’t have a video category as such, I’ll drop this here and also over in the Photo Share chat. I believe this is her mate earlier in the day on our drought-struck lawn -
Eeek, I really have to update my site summary. Haven’t lived in New England in a while.
