How would you clean these up?

[MN Shutterbug]

Or would you just say the heck with it, it's not worth it.

I spent an hour in the blind this afternoon, at a "new" friend's house and about 4:15, a cardinal finally shows up. Unfortunately, the litle [contact us, please] wouldn't get off the ground. It doesn't make for a very nice looking photo. Cloning would be such a chore, but is there any other way? Any suggestions, besides going back to the blind?

[mmeyer]

X,

Those shots are real good. The second is best because the post isn't in the shot. I would probably crop them in a little but it's natural the way it is. One other option would be to blur out the foreground a bunch.

Just my opinion but they are already nice photos. At least you got birds. All I get is black and white squirrels.

[finnbay]

I agree with Mike. A little cropping might make some difference. Of course, cloning just the pole out in that first one and cropping might be the way to go. I actually like the color of the cardinal better in the first one. Wish I could see a cardinal. Stfcatfish assures me that they show up occasionally, but I've never seen one around here. Good shots!

[MN Shutterbug]

Thanks guys. Unfortunately, they've already been cropped a bunch. They're already down to not much more than 1200 X 1600. I wasn't all that close. I went back to the lady's backyard this evening and moved the blind closer to the feeder. I figured most of the birds are probably used to seeing it by now. I'll hit the blind at 8:00 a.m. Maybe I'll get a better shot and can scrap these. She emailed me to let me know that a red bellied woodpecker showed up right after I left. I've never seen one, let along photographed one. Maybe tomorrow.

[Steve Foss]

XT, about the only way to get a clear, natural-looking shot of a bird at a feeding station is to erect a perch. Mount a stick, a branch or something similar to the edge of the feeder, but sticking up above it. Many birds will hit the perch before landing on the feeder. Or when it gets busy at the feeder, they'll sometimes hop off the feeder and onto the perch.

That's how I and a huge number of avian photographers get natural looking images while still attracting birds to feeders.

You have to make sure the background is far enough away and not bright sky to get a sweet blurred and buttery background.

That's why it's hard to do this type of thing in someone else's yard. Much easier if you can develop your own setup in your own yard.

I have four separate feeders out on a daily basis, but when I'm going to shoot I take down and put away all but the fixed platform feeder (with a single perch next to it) so the birds can ONLY come to the single feeder, and the single perch is their only option other than the feeder. I even cut down a tree that the feeder had been mounted on to eliminate all those other perches.

A perch should not be a bunch of branches. It should be a single twig or a branch with a few branchlets from a spruce, for example, and you should train your lens on it so when a bird lands your lens has less work to do. The more perches you set up, the less likely you are to be able to capture that fleeting (and I mean FLEETING) moment when a bird lands and takes off again.

And, of course, once you train your lens on the perch, you have to develop the discipline not to move your lens over and shoot the bird on the feeder when it lands on the feeder instead of the perch.

You're probably getting the idea that a feeding station set up for avian photography is not a thing of beauty. But you're trying to capture images of beauty, not decorating a kitchen space.

And, lastly, mind the light! Many an otherwise nice image has been ruined because the light was at a bad angle.

Good luck!