Prothonotary Warbler

Hi All,

Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend. Yet another photo from 2013. For this guy, I was hiding out from a kingfisher at a local pond when this prothonotary showed up and hunted for a while. This was one of the only decent shots I got.

In post, I tamed some yellow highlights that were on the verge of blowing out, burned the perch a bit, sharpened the bird, reduced noise on the background, cloned a couple little spots of spider web, and cloned a second catch light in the bird’s eye. All C&C welcome.

Techs:
D3s
200-400 + 1.4x TC @ 550mm
1/1250
f/5.6
ISO 800

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@feelingruby

Well composed with nice pose and detail. Background works very well. It’s a little too oversaturated even though I know these birds are quite bright.

Thanks, @David_Schoen. Hmm, I didnt touch the saturation or make any adjustments that should have affected color (like curves, for example). This is basically straight from RAW except for reducing the highlights slider in C1P. Are you seeing blown yellows, and I’m missing them?

I think digital sensors have a tendency to over saturate yellow,red,and bright green. If you use the de haze slider, you will probably have a blue cast on your whites and skies will be over saturated. I am almost always cranking down saturation in post. I have found this issue with even the newer cameras,including D5, D850, A7R4, high end Canon, etc.

Hi Lyle, the yellow here looks fine to me - these birds really glow in the sunlight but I think you handled the exposure well. I wish for more depth of field on the bird. I think shooting at a narrower aperture would have helped. Still a fine capture and I like the composition. These guys can be tough to catch out in the open.

Excellent job holding the detail int he yellows, Lyle. Not an easy thing to do. I like the vibrant yellow bird against that dark background and the gentle curves of the perch. Nicely done.