A couple of birds

From last weekend. C&C most welcome

Magpie, K3, DA300, f4, 1/200, ISO 400



Yellowhammer, K3, DA300, f4, 1/200, ISO 125

Alan, they're both great! I don't usually like a complex background for this kind of shot, but in the first it works well, obviously becasue of the space needed for the reflection, and the framing is very good.

2 has got its narrow DOF which gives us the snippets of in focus grass at the front, and the yellow of the bird standout out beautifully.

I know my small technical gripes are becoming a bit of a cliche, but if it was possible I would try and tidy up the slight halo (its very sharp and thin - is it caused by some masking between the sharp and OOF areas?) across the top of the first bird's head, which draws the eye up from the face as it is.

Thank Nigel, nothing going on around the head. All thats been applied to this are global adjustments.

If only global adjustments the halo would I think be an artifact from the sharpening/contrast adjustments made. I always try really hard to avoid these because, well, I just hate halos and processing artifacts and would always adjust and sharpen less to avoid introducing them - but that's me.

Riddle me this though - in your shot there is a clear horizontal twig running behind the birds head, which I notice because of the aforementioned halo on it. Yet this twig seems to be completely missing in the reflection.

Well all I see around the head is a bit of noise on the full size version. The same noise that is there throughout. Perhaps more obvious at that point because of the unfortunate positioning of the grasses beind the head.

As to the reflection. I'm above the bird. Why would the grass behind and below the bird be reflected in the water? There is a great big nettle right next to the bird. That isn't in the reflection either. If that is a riddle, then its one for a physics forum

two good shots. capturing a Yellowhammer on camera is never a bad thing

Thanks Alistair

Re the "halo", I'm not on my home pc at the moment, but doesn't seem too much untoward looking at this screendump cropped from the original size on flickr.

Its certainly not a big deal - I feel guilty now for causing perhaps undue focus on what is a small technical point. When we are looking at high quality images it is often only very fine points of presentation that are left to be mentioned. I mention them though because I like to ensure everything is tidied up completely in my own shots, not always successfully though, and I assume that others will be looking towards the same. Sometimes these tiny artifacts can become more apparent at smaller JPEG sizes, which is odd, maybe something to do with the compression?

Anyway, its nothing to distract from a very good shot.

For sure it isn't anything much just a bit of gradient reversal artifact on that high contrast edge between the top of the head and lighter twig. Unfortunately my eye gets drawn to that sort of distraction and perhaps my dislike of processing artifacts is extreme - no-one else has to like/dislike the same things I do. (It isn't a prominent enough effect that I would have commented on it except for the fact it was already discussed in the thread)

And I think you're right about the reflection. I was expecting the reflection and original image to match, but there is a difference in light path direct to the bird and the reflection path bouncing off the water so the relationship between foreground and background will change in the reflection. Riddle answered perfectly.

Don't even know what it means ... lol. Just a simple man using lightroom

Thanks guys

They look good to my old eyes, great reflection of the magpie. I thought the yellow bird was a mutant spuggie

Thanks Stan

Steam train in our neck of the woods tomorrow morning

Just had a look at the journey planner and it looks like they will be going to the Alcan unloading facility across the river. HOW SCENIC will that be.
Could be a good shot for David's weekly comp

There is no haloing or artefacts in Alan's image and the reflection question regarding the twig is a bit off the mark. The reason for the suspicion of haloing, is the lighter colour of the twig that is partially obscured by the bird's head, this may give an impression of a halo, but there simply isn't one there!

As for the reflection, as Alan has pointed out, the water is reflecting at a completely different angle to that which the camera is pointing the bird itself! There is no way the reflection would ever contain the same elements as the direct view that the camera has.

I think we should look at images for what they are, instead of scrutinising the minute pixel detail for 'processing faults' that don't exist! I've had comments once about a halo on a horizon where the land met the sky, this was simply the edge of a dark cloud that existed at the right of the image but not at the left!

The images are very good Alan, I can't see anything I would particularly change in them.

Regards
David

Thanks David

The shot of yours you refer to, reminded me of a cloud in one of mine. Crazy, I almost didn't share it because of it

https://www.pentaxuser.com/photo/lone-tree-on-the-wall-73502/large