Well...around here is pigeons, an occasional robin and tons of sparrows. But we went to my brother and sister-in-law's place for an open house yesterday. They have 3.5 acres of woods surrounding there augmented cape cod cottage. It is very serene. But it was pouring all day. They are avid bird watchers and have 3/4 feeders on their deck in the back of the house and about a two foot roof eve off the back of the house of the deck so I was able to stay relatively dry while shooting. I saw a red headed woodpecker, chicadees, a wren or two, couple of turtle doves and a squirrel on or around the feeders. Hmmm. Well I caught a chicadee and this on the branches around away from the feeders so I hope it is OK. If not....well Merry Christmas to you.
Post: Camera raw adjustments in PSElements 6.0.
2 crops
Spot healed/cloned dust, couple of blurry distracting dots, probably water drops (did I mention it was pouring all day) and a small distracting discernible twig left over from one of the many crops at bottom left.
Layer adjustments for levels, brightness/contrast and hue/saturation.
Duplicate layer and did a color curves adjustment using the increase contrast default and merged, normal blend mode 80% opacity.
3 more crops.
Selected the background, leaving the front most branches and the bird and applied NI.
Selected inverse and adjust sharpness.
Resise.
USM.
Selective blur bottom of long diagonal branch and one small brance below it left of center.
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I love these little guys with their big eyes. And they're quick, so nice job capturing this one. Torn between liking the water drops on the branches and wanting a tighter crop on the bird to make it more portrait-y ... think for this challenge I'd prefer a tighter crop. Maybe only keep a couple of drops and crop tighter bottom and left.
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