Taken last March on a trip to Arizona. I thought I’d post this as this is probably a species not frequently posted on NPN.
Any comments or suggestions are always appreciated.
Canon 7D Mark II; Sigma 150-600 mm at 252 mm; 1/1000 at f5.6; ISO 2500
Hi Allen
This is the nicest looking Jay I have every seen. You could even come to like Blue Jays the look like this. Nice work. One question, who did you keep the noise down at a ISO of 2500? The shot has great detail and color.
Peter
Thanks, Peter, for your kind words. In looking at the original raw image, there didn’t seem to be much noise and I didn’t do any NR in LR. Can’t recall my workflow in PS, though sometimes I’ll reduce the clarity in PS’s camera raw filter which seems to reduce noise. It may be the light in this case was good enough to prevent much noise from occurring.
Excellent job on the jay, Allen. I really like the pose with the bit of a cocked head. The perch has some really nice curves and texture, though I do wish it hadn’t taken that turn to the rear that puts the upper part out of focus. If you had time for adjustments, I think you could have tried for more dof. At 252 mm, you might have been able to get the perch completely sharp, though you probably wouldn’t have wanted to go past f/8 or so. The rest of the background is a bit distracting, but I’m not sure what could be done without going completely black or just replacing it wholesale.
This is an excellent image with a superb pose, detail, color balance, perch. If I had any criticism, I would say the crop is a little too tight and I agree with Dennis with respect to the out of focus area on the perch. Still a very well done image that is fun to look at
