This is the same bird from my post in Man & Fauna. The bird was feeding along the edge of a snow covered field and perched momentarily on a piece of ice. I was seated in the mud and snow with my rig positioned low for the shot. Wheatears normally overwinter in Africa, but this one decided to visit Central Ohio.
The Reposted photo is with the out of focus mud cropped from the view. Looks good. Thank you all for the critiques…Jim
Specific Feedback Requested:
The lighting is quite flat and the mask absorbs so much light that I had to do quite a bit of fiddling to get the details around the eye. Let me know how I did.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
D500 600mm f4 (1/1000 sec at f6.3, ISO 180), Curves, Topaz DeNoise, Crop for comp (40%), Brightness & Contrast, Dodge around eye and bill. Overall, this photo shows the harshness of Winter and like the simple composition.
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Hopefully the little bird makes it though the winter. Looks cold. You got a nice low angle and exposure looks really good. The area around the eye looks good. I might have gone a tiny bit lighter but I give myself a bit more leeway on what is real and what is not. I can only imagine there was a crowd of birders there to see such a rare winter visitor. I also like the nice simple composition. Tells the story.
Hi Jim
You have captured winter. Thank you for this photograph of a Northern Wheatear. My first view. The eye and beak look fine. Catching the bird on the ice just add to a all ready great photograph.
Peter
The detail is superb, Jim, and I think the eye is fine. All the birds with a black mask like that are difficult to pull detail out of and that’s the way we see them. This one looks great. You might look at cropping up from the bottom to the bottom of the snow/ ice line. That would still give you enough room down there and would get rid of the out of focus mud.
Really nice capture Jim. Details looks good to me as well as exposure. Very interesting image with the bird posing on the ice. Agree with Dennis’ cropping suggestion. Well done.
