Pertinent technical details or techniques: D500 200mm f4 macro (1/80 sec at f20, ISO 10000 10 image stack, Levels, Brightness & Contrast, Denoise. This is a 10 image stack as I am very paranoid about missing a slice with a wider aperture. Sharpening takes care of any softness due to diffraction. I cropped slightly to remove an orphaned branch and removed dust bunnies with rubber stamp tool. The 1000 ISO was a mistake on my part due to me not examining camera settings while wearing reading glasses. Chickadees and titmice kept jumping on the branch and shots were taken after the branch stopped shaking.
Is this a composite? yes–stacked images.
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Jim, you are almost causing me to miss snow! What a great capture. You sure had patience to wait for the branch to stop moving after the birds left. I am sure it was cold out there. I like the fungi that is on the branch along with the snow. Nice soft BG. Well done.
Well worth the effort, both in photographing and processing. Wonderful detail and a lovely hint of structure in the BG. I hope you captured some birds on it – what a great perch!
