Raven in the snow

[Stan Cunningham]

Was hoping for big mule deer but was not to be this day but I enjoyed shooting some birds.
This Raven was picking seeds out of the Pinyon cones covered with snow and ice and squaking about the difficulty I suppose.
5 D III, 70 - 200 with 1.4 X III at 280, F 9, ISO 640. Manual, 2 years ago I never would have exposed this correctly, thanks guys!
Would have liked to see all the tail but I still liked the photo, behavior, and good representation of the habitat.

Keep the comments coming and I'll come back with better photos.124081

[Richard Stern]

Hi,

I'm afraid I find this image to be very busy - I can't tell if it's a bird picture or a picture of snowy trees, some of which are oof. It's also very contrasty - the whites are blown in places, and the Raven is almost too black, although the head, ruffled throat feathers and open beak look great. Must be very hard to get the exposure right on such a high-contrast image. If possible from the image size and exposure, I wonder if a tighter crop on the bird together with a reduction in exposure on the snow around it, to bring out some detail, would work. Out of interest, how did you expose this differently from what you would have done 2 years ago?

Richard

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks Richard but we're going to have to agree to disagree on the background. I realize I'm in the minority on this forum though and as a biologist the habitat is often important but I see where you are coming from as well.
However my histogram shows no blown out pixels on the snow but I did run some detail extractor and tonal contrast to try and bring out some texture, I also reduced the crop size but it still may not be to your liking but I think your comments improved the photo.124119

[Stan Cunningham]

And if the moderators will let me, is this more what you like, less clutter with the vertical crop? I still like this one because of the cone at the bottom which was his/her food for the day. Moderators, if this is "illegal", my apologies just trying to learn more.
124120

[Richard Stern]

Hi again,

Actually I like the 3rd (vertical) crop the best of the 3. #2 is better than the original, but still looks very busy. However the whites certainly have more detail than the original. As a general comment, I too like to see some habitat and context included with bird pictures, and frankly, I find some of the pictures posted here of a bird (however technically excellent) against a very plain bg, such as a plain blue sky, lack overall interest - although knowing the style favored by many posters here I find myself doing it too. However, your original post, and to a lesser extent #2, still took it the bg to too extreme for my taste. I'm sure others will disagree - that's how we all learn!

Richard

[Stan Cunningham]

Thanks for the replies Richard, the more I look at it the more I see what you mean. Many of my photos I try to market to natural history magazines (smaller, no big time) and often I'm thinking of stories or lectures that I might do. So on this one I really one I wanted the pinyon cones which was the food source. I think you are right on post #3.