New Holland Honeyeater

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

This is my contribution to the Australian New Holland Honeyeater collection - this bird was photographed in my garden during a late afternoon in January which is peak summer season in South Australia. Canon 1dXII, 600 f4 II + 1.4 TC III, 1/1600 sec, f/5.6, ISO 1250, Manual exposure, handheld from hide, Lens micro-adjustment: +3, processed with PS CC. Thanks for looking.

[gail bisson]

The bird and the perch look great.
I find the OOF on the left a bit overwhelming. Too bad you did not/could not move to the right.
If you were so inclined, your could crop this to a vertical and add a bit of canvas using the great green BG.
BG looks great and I love the perfect HA and clear eye,
Gail

[Bill Dix]

The bird and perch are spectacular. Great pose and exposure. I probably wouldn't have minded a bit of oof flower on the left, but there is just too much of it for me. Maybe a crop as Gail has suggested is worth a try.

[Arthur Morris]

I love the image and the bird. I like the flower on the left. I would love to have seen the whole thing included in a slightly wider frame. Which brings me to, why hand hold from a hide???

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

ps; It might have been possible to get the whole flower in by moving the bird back in the frame...

a

[Isaac Grant]

Beautiful bird and flowers with a killer background. This photo sums up extremely well why bird photography is so difficult and why getting that "ideal" photo is so elusive. You have a crazy beautiful bird with a perfect flower perch, however because of the slight angle that the bird was on your fstop of 5.6 was not enough to get the whole bird in focus. If you were at close distance you needed to up your ISO and your fstop to at least f9 to try and get more of the bird in the focal plane. While the flowers are beautiful the large and out of focus one on the left is distracting and the one the bird is perched on is cut off. Gails vertical crop is a good suggestions but would require a fair bit of cloning to remove the rest of that flower which may or may not be OK for you. As Artie mentions, it would have been better if you raised the focal point higher in the camera and moved the bird higher in the frame to get more of the flower it is on in the frame. If from a blind, shooting this shot as a vertical may have helped if you had the time. Taking the converter off and shooting wider may have helped as well. To my eye the shot is at least half a stop under exposed. All in all it is still a beautiful photo but does not tick all of the boxes for me.

[Daniel Cadieux]

My first thought when seeing this image was that I wish the lens was pointed more to your right to include the full flower at left - echo in different words what Artie was saying. Great bird and perch and beautiful green BG.

[Arthur Morris]

FWIW, I am perfectly fine with the d-o-f as presented. And have ben for 35 years :) Getting to f/9 would nearly have more than doubled the ISO. For what? Nothing IMHO. Another FWIW, I avoid shooting completely wide open not for more d-o-f, but to minimize vignetting. So I shoot my f/5.6 combos at f/6.3. The only time that I see a need to stop down is when the birds are really, really close.

Keep focusing on the eye and making great images at wide apertures!

with love, artie

[John Mack]

Whoa. Neat looking bird. Really like the perch here. Nice background.

[Dorian Anderson]

You've presented this incredible bird very well! The detail and subject engagement are great, as it the color. I agree that the left flower is both too much and not enough. It would have been great to have none of it or all of it.

[Gerhard Weldhagen]

Thanks everyone for your comments, its been really helpful for planning another garden shoot with this species later this year. Now I just need to wait for the proteas to flower!