Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Another image from the back garden, if you are wondering about the right wing tip, that is how it was - no cloning or monkeying around!
The background should be better...I hope.

Olympus : E-M1X
Lens focal length : 155 mm
Focal Length (35 mm conversion) : 310.0mm
Metering mode : Pattern
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 1600
Exposure compensation : +0.3 EV
Shutter speed : 1/3200 sec (Procapture high 60fps)
Aperture : F5.6

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon ... a fine shot , you are making progress !!!

The BG is way better , pose looks good to me .... I am never that picky about the HA :w3 oder wing position .
The stump needs to go ..... LOL .
I would remove some blue/cyan from the bird ....

Just for my personal interest .... is 1/3200 sec not fast enough to freeze the wings ???
And bit more DOF would not have hurt ...

I give you a 9 back .... with my limited avian experience

TFS Andreas

[Jonathan Ashton]

Hi Jon ... a fine shot , you are making progress !!!

The BG is way better , pose looks good to me .... I am never that picky about the HA :w3 oder wing position .
The stump needs to go ..... LOL .
I would remove some blue/cyan from the bird ....

Just for my personal interest .... is 1/3200 sec not fast enough to freeze the wings ???
And bit more DOF would not have hurt ...

I give you a 9 back .... with my limited avian experience

TFS Andreas

Andreas the stump was there to show where he had come from. The wings at this point will be moving particularly fast as he had just taken off and he wanted to ascend just a couple of inches.
Just for info when birds come off a stump in a downwards direction they tend to look like torpedoes and it is rare you get to see the wings.

(I did remove blue but not cyan from the bird).

[Andreas Liedmann]

Jon ... thansk for the additional info , just think the stump is too dominant .

Regarding the color thing .... I do not care what you have removed already .... LOL , just see the colors and think they could be addressed . In many cases a matter of taste , must not meet your thoughts . So I would call this a minor .... " issue" .

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, now this has for me, quite an 'optical' effect, almost Escher...

To me, it looks/appears like you shot the bird banking away, so you see the underside, but intact it's shot from above, if that makes sense???? It must be the HA perhaps???? Does the log add or detract, for me detracts, it's cleaner, but you obviously designed it that way with the set-up. I don't mind the wing blur & SS and of course the f-stop isn't the conventional we are used to, re the kit. I'll leave it for others on colour, but the BKG looks so much better, hopefully you have ditched the previous adjustment, you just don't need it and at ISO800 on the last one, it's just sheer madness and not good practice.:w3

I think you are getting there, perhaps with the slight overcast days looming it may be in your favour. Baited I assume Jon?

TFS
Steve

[Bill Dix]

Great shot. And interesting. As Steve notes, at first glance it looks like its from beneath because of the HA, until a closer look shows it to be a dorsal view (almost with his head on backwards). BG looks good, and I like the stump. Nicely captured IMO.

[David Roach]

Love this canvas as they get better and better... Just as another opinion, I like the stump as part of the story (it is a takeoff). Also, it appears this beauty has fibers in the beak from that very stump. Keep them coming. TFS

[John Mack]

Best pose do far. I would sharpen the bird some more.

[arash_hazeghi]

this one is better but the motion blur in the head area is evident, I'd be surprised to get these sharp below 1/4000 sec and I'd say 1/5000 sec to be sure

TFS

[Dorian Anderson]

Getting songbirds in flight is virtually impossible, so this represents a strong effort. I agree the shutter needs to be faster. Between the strongly blurred wings and soft-ish head, most of the subject isn't crisp.

[Daniel Cadieux]

The image design is very good, but I agree the subject shows motion blur on the face (I'm OK with the wings). Nice view of the white rump feathers.