Eastern Pheobe bird

[Nicks Pics]

In late summer after nesting season each year the Eastern Pheobes come to our property and catch bugs on the wing or dive to the ground for a terrestrial bug. A type of flycatcher. They become very common to see before they migrate south for the winter.

Anyway, just recently got to PP this one in LR and Gimp for sharpening mostly. It was shot with the fujifilm SL1000 with which image noise can be high, so I gave it an unsharp mask and then used a layer mask and brush to remove the unsharp mask layer from the background and let the BG layer show through which had a treatment of NR.

I tried to upload a fairly large version since I think it is sometimes necessary to see large res. to be able to give critique.
Any comments welcome!
.

[IzzieK]

This is a neat shot, Nick...I particularly like the composition and the framing -- the pose is superb and the catchlight in its eye is very nice...and oh, I do not mind the noise in this one. I think it adds to the beauty of the shot.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, I think a smaller size would help regarding the noise.

[mugge]

I quite like the bird. I am a bit confused about the out of focus foliage just below the bird's feet. Nice try
Ole

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Izzie, Glad you like it

Thanks John, I chose to display a larger size so viewers could see both up sides and down sides, because it most likely would look better and better the smaller I make it

Thanks Ole, the foliage is just out of focus pine needles and twigs, and while I like those in the corner, I think those ones right under the birds feet are a bit distracting.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice bird, I like the composition

[Brownbear]

Hi Nick,

I think you've captured the beauty of the bird, beautifully! Gorgeous detail, a lovely pose and the sparkle in its eye...

It's challenging to photograph little birds perched in trees (busy backgrounds)... The tree trunk looks a bit odd to my eyes. (texture). If this were my image I would reduce the noise in just the bits of the blue sky and blurred greenery (ie; only where truly necessary)

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Binnur.

Thanks Cristina, I attempted to reduce the noise in the BG and sharpen the FG, using layer masks as I mentioned, I'm not sure if it was an unusual strategy or a common one, but I'm experimenting. The tree bark is slightly out of focus, I see that odd texture, I think it happened when sharpening for upload maybe.

[Bobobird]

Excellent details. Bit of noise in the other areas but overall a very nice shot.

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Bobo,
That's a compliment coming from an experienced bird shooter like you. The sl 1000 is at least, a decent bang for the buck.

[Geoff F]

I think you can get a bit more 'heavy handed' with the noise reduction on that background. There is nothing there which needs showing in detail.

With this sort of scene I normally selectively sharpen the main subject then select around the background for noise reduction. But I feather the selection by 6 to 12 pixels so it doesn't produce a noticeable edge.

One other method which often works for me is to go over the bad areas with a bit of soft Blur Brush.

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Geoff, I've been looking to try out such sharpening methods lately, maybe I'll give your method a try. Right now to me, the BG in this photo looks not especially noisy, but blocky. I am not sure if it's because of too many compressions and over PP, or upload, or if it's the web browser.