You are welcome. Overall I was happy with this shot in spite of the branches.

Thank you. Not sure about the crop though. I attempted to clone out the cut branches, but made a mess of it. If I devoted enough time could do it, but not sure I will.

Truly they are.

Thank you. One of my favorite birds from this trip.

Thank you for looking. Certainly my wife's and my traveling has changed over the years as we both have gotten older and less mobile, but there are still many places where we can go and see some great birds. Here is a shot of my wife in a "typical" scene. She is working hard.

Thanks for the nice words. When I look at my shots from my Canon R5, like this one, in RAW, there is always significant noise. However, once passed through DXO during RAW conversion, 90% of the noise is gone. Then, during processing in PS, I sometimes raise contrast, exposure, and saturation. All of these will introduce (or at least exaggerate) noise in the image. That is why I run the flattened TIFF file through a very low setting of Topaz DeNoise before converting to JPEG.

Ah, yes; there are people who would argue that. I guess it is all in the details.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

When my wife and I go on trips to the neotropics to photograph birds, one of my shortcomings is that I do not study the birds of that area very extensively beforehand. I rely on local guides to help me ID birds once I am on location. Unfortunately many of these local people are more accustomed to "bird watchers" than photographers. Simply seeing a bird 100 meters away through the trees is not very satisfying to me, so I have to emphasize to the guide what I want. Generally from that point on, both of us are happier. I also emphasize that I would prefer to shoot a good photograph of a common bird that a poor photo of a rare bird. I am happy shooting anything. That is why I come back from exotic trips with many photos of sparrows or other "common" birds.
However, I will admit that there are certain birds that I would be disappointed if I did not get the opportunity to photograph in a given local. This is one of those birds. This is a Saffron Toucanet. Not a rare bird in the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, but sometimes hard to photograph as they travel widely in their territory. I was happy to have the opportunity to photograph them last summer.
Shot with a Canon R5, 600 mm f/4.0, SS 1/1600, f/5.6 (these are long birds-I needed some DOF), ISO 320. Cropped slightly from L and bottom. I could not get the cut branches on the lower right out of my frame without making the crop less pleasing. Processed in PS with bird brought up slightly.

(Download)

Thank you. Kind words.

Thank you. I also appreciate it when a photographer explains how (s)he got the shot or what they were thinking when they took it.

Yes I use it frequently. In fact, I have to be careful not to expect miracles. The proverbial "sow's ear into a silk purse".

Yes, many, if not all, of the newer cameras are amazing.

[quote=Barn Owl]bajadreamer, The fact that you were specific in your sequence of enhancing the image, reached beyond what we commonly see on the UHH. All such detail is appreciated. Most of the advanced contemporary software is of little use if the photographer does not master how to use it.[/quote


Certainly agree with you; some of the software (DXO Pure Raw) is simply "push button". User has few to no choices in what the outcome will be. For some that is a detriment, but for others that is a good thing.
When I first started using UHH, I appreciated detailed explanations of how an image was taken and processed. It was a learning process for me. Now I rarely see that on this forum any more. It is simply-"Here is the image".