Marsh nest-builder

[purplehaze]

Hi all. Finally made room on my hard drive to download some more recent images. I caught this female Red-winged Blackbird with the 500 mm + 1.4 teleconverter a few weeks ago. I actually have several frames of her that I like. I smoothed out the background and made it somewhat more uniform but stopped short of going all the way. C&C welcome.



ISO 720, 1/1250, f/8, 700 mm

[billtils]

Very nice Janice. I like your work on the background!

[Chataignier]

Splendid shot, the background works just fine.

[DanK]

IMHO, the background is good as is. I think it would look artificial if smoothed more.


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[Manfred M]

Like the others, I feel that you have found the "sweet spot" in how the background has been processed. It is not distracting and it is not too smooth, so that works out well.

I do find the top of the bull-rush that crosses the frame a little bit distracting. Reworking that part so that it ends lower down might we something to try.

[Cantab]

I agree with the others, a good portrait of the bird in her natural habitat.

[purplehaze]

Thanks for the feedback. Manfred, I'm not sure how I would give the top of the bullrush a hard edge if I were to chop it off. Suggestions?

[Manfred M]

Thanks for the feedback. Manfred, I'm not sure how I would give the top of the bullrush a hard edge if I were to chop it off. Suggestions?

I'd start with something like this. You mostly want to keep the top of the bullrush away from the top edge of the image. The main thing is to get this distracting element represented in a way that could be natural and lets the bird stand out more.