fall in spring

[John Chardine]

This image created today reminds me of late fall after the leaves have fallen on the trees. This female Ring-necked Pheasant was with her mate and they were both feeding in the back yard of our house this evening in Sackville, New Brunswick. I like the look of the female more than the gaudy male and her colours go so well with the fallen maple leaves in this image. I softened the background a little with some selective blurring.

Comments welcome!

40D, 100-400mm @ 400mm
capture date: Tuesday, April 22, 2008 6:48:11 PM
exposure program: Aperture Priority
ISO speed: 1000
shutter speed: 1/200
aperture: f6.3
exposure bias: +1.0
metering: Pattern

[Rosl Roessner]

Hi John,
mostly we see the male Pheasant in a forum; not the female. I love to see the female here.
Looks as if the head is not really sharp?
I like the pose and colours, it feels a little too bright for me, but I think, exposure is correct.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi John, Good composition and colors, but the focal point is not on the eye, its a bit blued...:eek:

[Jim Poor]

Even though the bird is looking left, I feel you need more space to the right. I get the feeling that the bird is about to run into the wall (edge of frame) while not looking where it is going.

The glare off the leaves really makes this image hard to enjoy. Toning down some of the hot spots might help.

There are some really interesting patterns in the feathers, which are way sharper than the eye.

[Robert O'Toole]

The feather details look good and the warm tones are nice.

Agree that the image is bright, and some sharpening on the face would improve the image.

Robert

[John Chardine]

Thanks for all the suggestions. That's how I and others all learn! Here's a re-try of the female Ring-necked Pheasant.

Just to say though that I was trying for a soft feel to the image so I wasn't so concerned with pin-sharpness. It was difficult conditions so that's all I had to work with anyway. So, here I have tried to re-frame, toned down the brightness of the image, did some selective sharpening and adjusted levels.

[Jim Poor]

I like the look of the bg/fg here much better. There is a lot less glare. That said, I think you took the color down too far on the bird itself. Using masking, you could go with the new BG, and somewhere between the original and repost on the bird.

[John Chardine]

The re-post suffers from the de-saturation problem I occasionally see when I Save for Web and Devices in Ps. I put a question up on the BPN Workflow forum about this but didn't get any response (haven't checked lately).