I have always found the Goldfinch hard to get right in PP. Likes to hide out in dark underbrush, that vivid yellow, small etc.
A pain in the a** with a Q which tends to burn high lights and very little head room to work with especially when working with a jpg.
Getting a realistic tonal range on the plumage is difficult. Taken at a distance of about 40 feet. Full frame no crop.

Model PENTAX Q-S1
Shutter Speed 1/200 s
F-Number f/0
ISO ISO 500
Exposure Bias Value -0.70 eV
Metering Mode Center weighted average
Flash Off, Did not fire
Focal Length 560 mm
Lens Model Pentax Q manual lens
Date/Time Original 4/25/2016 4:14:30 PM

[normhead]

I think you might have some purple fringing on that one.

[wildman]

might have som purple fringing

Yep - touched it up a bit...

[ccc_]

another question for you...

my shots of goldfinches on sunny days tend to have blown out highlights
do you think it is the contrast from the utter blackness of the crown and wings or reflectance of the yellow body feathers?

both my q and my x30 will have that distortion of blacks when pushed even a little bit
if I really want to use those images I find I must mask a heck of a lot more than I like to

[normhead]

Anything black and white will have problems on sunny days. What you're talking about is dynamic range. No camera can hand toe 20,000:1 contrast of a really sunny day. You have to decide, blacks or whites. You won't get both. Most often we keep the whites, and let th black go. Having a camera like a K-1 with really high Dynamic range helps.

[eaglem]

Great colours on this bird.

[ccc_]

norm...I understand that

however I was speaking to the highlights on goldfinches, which tend to be yellow, showing up as white splotches in some of my images

as to the k1...it isn't going to happen
I picked up a k3ii and a 100mm macro to complement a sigma 150-500 for an outdoor kit
the full frame option didn't offer enough improvement for my purposes

however I see you're quite intoxicated by it
a new toy is always fun

[wildman]

my shots of goldfinches on sunny days tend to have blown out highlights
do you think it is the contrast from the utter blackness of the crown and wings or reflectance of the yellow body feathers?

I was speaking to the highlights on goldfinches, which tend to be yellow, showing up as white splotches in some of my images

Without getting too deep into the tech weeds and not having a file to look at, off hand I'd say it's the result of a simple case of blown highlights. In which case I would shot RAW and expose ETTR making sure the brightest spots are about 1/3 a stop below the burn point in the case of a lot of yellow highlights. By the way I never shoot birds out in the open sunlight you just lose too much shadow detail and makes the plumage look dense and muddy.

This is the case here (RAW and ETTR), and I purposely took this off a Q sensor, which is quite brittle when it comes to highlights, so I would think on a K3 you would have much better DR...

Model PENTAX Q-S1
Shutter Speed 1/200 s
F-Number f/0
ISO ISO 200
Exposure Bias Value -0.30 eV
Metering Mode Pattern
Flash Off, Did not fire
Focal Length 560 mm
Date/Time Original 6/3/2015 3:57:54 PM

[ccc_]

Without getting too deep into the tech weeds and not having a file to look at, off hand I'd say it's the result of a simple case of blown highlights. In which case I would shot RAW and expose ETTR making sure the brightest spots are about 1/3 a stop below the burn point in the case of a lot of yellow highlights. By the way I never shoot birds out in the open sunlight you just lose too much shadow detail and makes the plumage look dense and muddy.

thanks for not taking me into the weeds.
I hate ticks and chiggers.

I don't have your discipline.
I just shoot when there is an opportunity.

I will try some compensation this spring when the males are bright.
our winter finches are quite subdued though beautiful for all that.
this looks to be our second year of over-wintering goldfinches.
global warming has some small benefits.

thanks again.