I had been taking a few photo of the Robin eating the berries when it decided to have a stretch.
I debated removing more of the branches and in the end I left these. What do you think?
Is this a composite: No
R5, 500mm + 1.4, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 1600, tripod. Cropped to 52% of width, LR, Topaz Denoise AI and PS.
I love the pose of the Robin, David, and the image quality is excellent. I like the way the extra branches frame the bird, but the larger one crossing the upper left corner seems to pull my eye. I wonder if burning it a trifle would solve that issue.
David, I love Robins, and you sure got a great shot here of one. Love his pose. I do agree with @Dennis_Plank. I love the framing, but for some reason that top left one does pull the eye. Maybe Dennis suggestion solve it. Great shot.
Dynamic pose, the branch doesn’t bother me but would be easy to just erase if you wanted… I think it would be better without.
Congrats for getting a nice Robin photo…
Hi David,
Looks good and am not sure about the branch in the upper LH corner. It does frame the robin nicely, so I woul be inclined to leave it as is. The BG has enough variation in color which strengthens the comp. Well done…Jim
I like this action pose very much. I don’t mind the branches directly left of the Robin. I wondered about the one in the ULC. I took the image to PS and removed it just to compare. I think I like it better without it, but it is certainly not a major issue as is.
David, this is a very nice composition. The pose is really good and dynamic, and the stems and berries and to the image balance. Nicely blurred background and of course impeccable sharpness.
Do you mind posting that image Keith so we can all have a look? I had worked at removing that branch but my attempts were getting all smudgy and I was losing the nice bright green bg so defaulted to my like of habitat/environment.
Hi David
Very lovely Robin photograph. I believe the branches frame the Robin and drown you eye to the Robin.
Nice work.
Peter
Love this one, the pose of the Robin is simply great and the color scheme of the entire image is very pleasant. Before reading the other’s remarks, I also thought about the branch in the upper left corner, and I think Keith’s repost an improvement. That said, your original post is already a very fine image ! Cheers, Hans
Hi David, this is my dream shot. Great action, clarity, BG smothness, great composition. I like both of the post but prefer the second post without the limb on the left. Good work.
Wayne
I’m late to the party again. I love the pose and detail on the bird! My first reaction was to remove that branch and @Keith_Bauer did an excellent job. It’s tricky working in a gradient like that. Work on the branch in small pieces, cloning where possible (with a temporary Curves on top to increase contrast hugely to see the smudges) to isolate smaller areas and then use the Patch tool on the isolated segments. The source can have a different color; it should be able to match the BG in the target area.
Thanks Keith. It does look better and I am glad you left those few berries in. Looks good. And thanks everyone else for the comments. An everyday bird doing an everyday thing gets captured on a sensor and presto, a little bit of magic.
Maybe that would work, but here’s what I did.
Made a very simple freehand lasso selection (rough) around the branch. Then Edit/Content Aware Fill. PS did a nearly perfect job removing it. Clicked OK
Used the Clone stamp tool at 30% opacity to touch up a couple of VERY minor edges where I could see a slight transition on what was cloned out.
Entire process was less than 1 minute.
Good thinking, @Keith_Bauer – that’s simpler. Or paint quick mask to get the selection.
Good discussion! Beautiful image with superb composition. They both work for me. Part of shooting environmental images is that you should expect some distractions. But over cloning, you may have an aesthetically better image but less realistic. I think we all have this dilemma.
Great pose. Fantastic IQ. Love the branches with the berries, but I also vote to evict the branch in the ULC.
