Fall Color

In late fall, male American Goldfinches slip into their winter plumage unannounced, shedding their bright yellow breeding plumage.

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Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Canon 60D in Av mode, Canon 70-300 IS USM Zoom @ 200mm, f/5.6, 1/750 sec., ISO 800. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz De-noise applied. I burned down the brightest portions of the branch a bit and also added a slight vignette. I believe that helped mute the bg and accentuate the bird.

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Lovely capture, Terry. Great detail in the feather and such a nice pensive expression this little fellow has. Your handling of the branch and the background work well, at least for me. My only “nit picky” thought, would be to some how get rid of the broken twig. However, having said that, I can’t really image how you could do it. Love the bird, very nicely seen and captured.

Hey Terry, nice positioning of the Goldfinch in the frame. I like the broken branch as well, nice touch. I just noticed what looks like fencing in the background…subtle so it’s not a big deal. I see you used Topaz to handle the noise, but the larger version is still very noisy. The 60D is a rather old camera so the noise handling is not all that great, even at ISO 800. Another run through De-noise might help though…You could also put a mask on everything but the bird and hit it even harder with de-noise…might be worth a try…It’s a very nice image worthy of a bit more care and feeding. :slight_smile:

@linda_mellor Thanks, Linda. That little broken stem could easily be removed, but I thought it added a bit of ambience to the scene. Maybe not… :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

@David_Bostock Thanks, David. I noticed the noise in the larger version, too. I can eliminate it in De-noise by using the ‘Severe’ option, but it then removes some of the detail from the bird. I’ve never tried the masking function. I’ll give it a go and see what it does.

I see your point, Terry, and am glad you have left it in. Nice job.

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Terry, this shows the winter colors of the male Goldfinch very well. I think the bit of broken branch is a nice addition. There is almost always a trade off between noise and detail.

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Thanks, Mark. You’re correct about the trade-off, and I decided the detail was more important to me than removing all the noise.

A lovely pose for a pretty bird. I don’t mind the broken twig but wish it wasn’t so close to the edge of the frame.

I haven’t used the 60D but I’m surprised Denoise isn’t performing better. I’ve used it on underexposed images on the very old 20D (my first digital camera) with very good results. Did you try the Auto setting? If it overdoes things, try bringing down the noise slider, or layer the overdone image on the original and reduce its opacity until you have a good balance.