Bullock's Oriole preening + a sharpened copy

It was early morning and the light was still very low but I had set up to try when this guy landed on a perch above the birdbath and started preening. I didn’t have good settings for action but had to try for it.

Specific Feedback Requested

All comments welcome!

Technical Details

Canon R5, 100-500 + 2X at 726, f/13, ISO 1600, 1/160 sec, sturdy tripod. Only a tweak of Shadows and Highlights in LR, to PS for NR and minor softening of dark shadows in part of the BG.

I went back and did Topaz Sharpen, which I very rarely use. I did make a difference on this one. It inadvertently picked up a gradient darkening adjustment layer and added it again in the LR.

1 Like

Excellent behavior shot, Diane. Wonderful pose, position in the frame, and awesome background. Well done.

This is so sweet Diane. Love the pose. Composition is nice with the perch entering as it does.

I looked at both images above and I can only see the bottom of the “edit” has been sharpened with Topaz at “full size”. However, I can see a difference in the overall light when I look at the images here.

Thanks guys! @glennie, with this post and another I just did in Landscape, I can only toggle between 2 versions at the first enlargement size. If I go to “full size” I can only see the first version I posted. Not sure if that’s something new of if I just now noticed it. Would be nice to be able to see the full enlargement of both. @David_Kingham, is that fixable – or a new glitch?

I get them both to enlarge, @Diane_Miller - and I’m glad. What a gorgeous bird. We have Baltimores yelling their heads off in the yard today, but they stay too high for me to photograph.

So fuzzy and bright. The eye is still visible and that background. Woah. Nothing obvious to improve. Just a gorgeous bird in some beautiful light, making itself more beautiful.

Thanks, @Kris_Smith! Put out a dish of grape jelly with a nice perch above it!

I can enlarge both but can’t toggle back and forth for the enlarged (“full sized”) view. But now I see a message at the top of the screen, “Due to extreme load, this is temporarily being shown to everyone as a logged out user would see it.” Never saw that before…

Hi Diane, sweet pose of a real beauty. I like how the perch works its way through the frame as well. Colors look quite nice. Well done.

I’m afraid it’s always been this way Diane, you can flip through in the lightbox, but not in full size.

Very good, Diane. I do see a bit more feather structure from the Topaz Sharpen.

Enjoying the colors and detail. Good pose and background. You’ve really been showing that today’s tele-converters do a great job. Curious if you’ve tried shooting in the 1.6 crop mode?

Hi Diane
The coloring on the Oriole, is outstanding. I had no lock expanding the second shot and could only expand the first post. By the way I think the second post is the best.
Peter

Thanks everyone! @Allen_Brooks, I really haven’t. I dialed it in once and had a quick look but all it really does is give a magnified view, and I’d just as soon crop in LR. I guess in some cases it would give a better look at the subject but I’m probably better off trusting AF. Good reminder though – I should have a closer look at it.