I didn’t see them for several days but today they were back, and there was some soft light so I trekked up the hill and set up for a level view. The BG is even more distant from this angle so no hint of features. Also am trying the 600 f/4 + 2X for a few days, for comparison with the 100-500. It is a little more stable – don’t know if the difference is IS or just inertia. (It definitely has more inertia – that is one heavy lens.)
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon R5, 600 f/4 + 2X at f/10, ISO 1600, 1/400 sec. Sturdy tripod. Shot in vertical orientation and cropped a little top and bottom, full width across. Minimal shadows and highlights in LR, into PS for denoise but it made almost no noticeable difference. A small amount of vignette and that was it.
Click twice for full enlargement, which is less than half the resolution of the full file. This is 2032 pixels across vs. 5140 for the full PS file, or 1/6 the number of pixels.
Holy cow Diane! The full enlargement just jumped off of the screen! Being able to see the detail in every feather is such a treat. The blue and yellow palette is lovely and the pose is gorgeous. I believe all your ducks have lined up.
Really like this, Diane. And I won’t be posting any of my tree swallow photos here. Such a grand shot, and pose with all those fine edges on the wing feathers. And it holds those wings like they were its cape. Such a tiny beak from this angle.
Fantastic detail in the larger version. It’s a really nice color combination, and as I mentioned with your bluebird photo, I really like the diagonals here. I do think leaving extra (and equal) empty space above and below in your crop throws the balance off just a bit, but otherwise it’s a really fine portrait of an underrated species.
Thanks everyone! @Max_Waugh, I cropped the bottom to leave a little breathing room for the bump on the stick, and to avoid it exiting right at the corner. I could clone off the bump and crop a little more from the bottom but I felt it provided a little balance to the bird, and a slight bit of authenticity to an otherwise suspiciously “clean” image, but in fact there was no cloning here. The BG is a grassy slope about 200 ft away.
Hey, I’m glad you’re with me in the No Cloning camp for this one. In terms of the comp, because of the right-facing look of the bird, and the downward-right slope of the branch below it, I feel there’s just a little too much empty space above the swallow. My eye wants to move right and downward, and the extra empty space above is providing resistance to that natural movement as I try to explore the frame.
@Max_Waugh – Ahhh! Too much space ABOVE – gotcha! And I agree it could be less. Good to have other eyes on an image! Interesting idea about eye movement / exploration / balance. Thanks!
I think I pay more attention to balancing visual weight/mass and not enough to eye movement.
