Gray-cheeked Thrush - Repost

What technical feedback would you like if any? Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any? Any

Pertinent technical details or techniques: Canon 7D, Canon 100-400, Hand held. 1/640 sec, at f/5.6, ISO 800

Marc:

A nice look at this little bird. At first blush a pretty nice image. Here’s some thoughts after looking more critically. It feels pretty tight at the bottom. Any more room? The background looks like has been artificially blurred. There is a line at the top of the rock that shows something done to the background (or the rock) but the edge wasn’t clean. Here’s a closer look at the issue I see:

Details in the bird are a bit soft. You didn’t mention if any noise reduction was applied?

It is a pretty bird with a real nice pose. There is some very nice fine detail around the eye but I am not sure what is going on with the post processing. Good comments by Keith.

Thank you Keith for the critique! I took another stab at it and attached a repost. I am only using Lightroom (still haven’t learned PS). Yes, I did attempt to blur the background and just skipped that in the repost. I struggled to cleanly “clone out” (using the LR spot removal tool) the area of rock just behind/below the thrush. The highlights on the rock in that one small area were blown out. Not sure I succeeded? I also backed off on some of the clarity and saturation adjustments from the original post.

Marc:

I think your repost is much better than the original. I see the issue you were trying to work on the background… a bit of noise. I like the amount of space at the bottom in the repost as well. Maybe a final crop with a a little from the top and a bit from the left (not intruding into the rock). I also think the less saturated colors feel more natural. In processing, many times, less is more… Nice work on the repost.

1 Like

Good job on the re-post. A nice look at a bird I was not familiar with. Had to look it up. It migrates from the far north to South America and from what I read, mainly at night, so a very nice catch.

1 Like

Nice catch, Marc. I like the repost. The composition works and the bright part of the rock isn’t bad.

1 Like

Thank you Allen. I don’t know that it would be considered rare, but it’s certainly not common in NYC.