Northern Flicker - C&C

[Bo4key]

Northern Flicker by Boaketography, on Flickr

220mm
f/5.6
1/1250 sec
ISO 200


Northern Flicker by Boaketography, on Flickr

250 mm
f/8.0
1/1000
ISO 200

Still working with the Canon 55-250. These are both crops of the original image, I just can't get close enough to fill the frame.

I like that I was able to get the sun behind me in these shots and get a little glint in its eye. I don't like that I had to shoot through the trees in the second and cut off his tail. I also think I could have shot at a lower ISO since the shutter speed is quite fast but there isn't any noise really so I'm not sure it really matters.

Thanks for looking.

 

[GregB]

Hi Bo4key, these look like very good shots to me, and the bird is beautiful.

I don't see any reason to lower the ISO, most half decent DSLRs these days are virtually
free of noise up to ISO 400 and even beyond. At 250 mm and shooting birds, the faster
your shutter speed the better.

Congratulations.

 

[Bo4key]

Thanks!

 

[greybeard68 41]

#2 is my favorite........very dramatic............#1 gets lost in the background. If you are using PS I would suggest that you select the bird and house (I use the quick selection tool) and then invert the selection. This will select all the background. Then turn down the saturation, vibrancy, and brightness a bit. Next invert the selection and brighten up the bird and house. This will create the needed separation. (jmho)

 

[Joel_W]

I prefer picture 1 over picture 2. Picture 1 has a near perfect bokeh background that keeps our eyes focused on the bird and the bird house. You could have used a little more crop to remove the wooden post and even some of the main portion of he bird house.

Picture 2 has the twig issue so often associated with small birds in trees. Twigs everywhere, and the one major one in the foreground is way out of focus. I can't tell if it was a cloudy overcast day, or is the sky blown out?

 

[cgipson1]

Nice shots! I prefer #1.. although a bit more crop would be nice! I actually tried to get some shots of a Flicker a couple of weeks ago, but he would not cooperate!

 

[Bo4key]

. I can't tell if it was a cloudy overcast day, or is the sky blown out?

Cloudy, but I did increase the exposure a little at the expense of blowing it out even more.

 

[Bo4key]

Nice shots! I prefer #1.. although a bit more crop would be nice! I actually tried to get some shots of a Flicker a couple of weeks ago, but he would not cooperate!

I thought about cropping more but I liked the context the birdhouse created. Flickers are hard to catch, they are so skittish and move pretty quickly. I think I took about 20 shots at the one location just to get one I liked. He flew away and came back 3-4 times before I could get the right shot.