Another image taken when the snow was coming down. The pale breast of the Junco really picked up the reflections from the snow, so I ended up brightening the rest of the bird through a TK luminosity mask (Darks 2). This was pretty tight in the frame originally, so I also added canvas top and right.
The toes were a touch closer to the bottom of the frame than I liked, but adding canvas there would be a bit more of a challenge. Should I have done it, or is this ok?
Any pertinent technical details:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 600 mm, Gimbal head mounted to blind, f/8, 1/250, iso 2000, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Neat Image for noise reduction.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Hi Dennis, lovely image. I think your PP work was excellent in rendering this result, and I think you have plenty of room at the bottom of the frame to space the toes. Nice job.
You have a really nice setup as far as light goes (I know, northwest iso2000 light).
Not sure what the crop is but you are close…
DOF is a challenge with small birds, I have the same problems in my yard, maybe back up a few feet?
PP excellent as always, not sure a lot of people realize the challenge of shooting in the northwest.
I can see no noise in the web version for the iso you shot at. Nice work.
Hi Dennis,
I really like this and again the image quality at ISO 2000 for the 7D2 is impressive. Nice processing. I think the space for the feet is fine. I like Dan’s suggestion of perhaps backing up some to help with overall DOF on the bird and framing. Nice image.
@Dan_Kearl and @Allen_Sparks. I’m afraid backing up isn’t an option. The blind is fixed in this instance. My best bet is to zoom out a bit, which I normally try to do. In this case I had shifted from a more distant perch and I failed to do that. If I’d been down around 400 mm or less it would have worked better.
