Taken this morning under partially cloudy skies before the sun hit the perch.
I rarely do centered images like this one however in order to get the mountain ash berries on both sides of the frame, the composition called for centering the subject. Anyone have any concerns or can you think of another crop? Are the mountain ash berries too bright to be a distraction. I was hoping to get a Spotted Towhee here but they have yet to cooperate.
I posted two versions; The second is slightly brighter and uses DxO Photo Lab for noise reduction.
Technical issue: Can anyone discern a difference in noise/clarity on the Goldfinch and the leaves/berries?
All the other settings in ACR and PS were identical…
Iso-500, 200-500 mm at 500 mm, F10, 250th, D 500, -0.7 EV, fill flash at -1, tripod, 80% of full frame, Adobe camera raw 10.5, Topaz adjust, TK sharpening action at 30%
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The composition works fine for me, David. The Goldfinch really becomes a continuation of the leaf cluster below it and the positions of the two berry clusters form another diagonal creating a very pleasing flow. The difference in the two images is interesting. You say all you changed was the noise reduction, yet the difference I see is in sharpness, not noise. The second version looks sharper in the plumage of the bird and the details of the berries and leaves. The backgrounds look about the same to me. For my personal taste, the first version is more pleasant to view. The second has almost too much sharpness.
David: I like the image. The comp works fine. The difference between the two images is very minor. I noted you said you used a different tool for NR. At ISO 500 I would hope there isn’t any discernible noise anyway. For us to see it at the size of these images would be nearly impossible. If I were to choose between the two, I prefer the darker version.
I think the comp works well here with the perch David, I like the first slightly darker version better.
