Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

[Jonathan Ashton]

It rained all day and it's still raining now, I thought I'd try my hand to get some raindrops bouncing off heads and bill, well no such luck but I did get a few images
Olympus E-M1X
Lens focal length : 210 mm
Focal length in 35 mm film : 421.0mm
Exposure mode : Manual exposure
ISO Sensitivity : 200
Exposure compensation : 0.0 EV
Shutter : 1/30 sec
Aperture : F5.6

ACR/TopazDNAI/PSCC

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Jon, when you bring the crop up from the foot and trim along the dark mossy log all the colours tie in so well, however it's just too tight, below is rather messy/ugly sadly. Any chance you might be able to add more of the darker log by removing the chewed up SB? The heads nice and sharp and the small droplets are pretty neat. DoF is right, you just need to change the SS. There's too much negative space IMHO to the RHS, or is there more to the LHS, as you didn't mention the crop.

TFS
Steve

[Paul Burdett]

I really like this image. The BG works so well as a compliment to the bird's colouring. I'm fine with the top log (don't find it messy/ugly). If it were mine I'd remove some canvas on the RHS and crop the bottom to around half way down the darkest part of the top log. Would like to have seen more of the bird in focus, other than the head. I'd also have a bash at removing the white vertical lines to the left and right of the bird. Lovely pose on the bird.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Steve, I agree compositionally not ideal, the foremost log is there because it is hollowed out to take seeds, I pulled the grasses up to try to conceal it but they slipped down again. I will play some more with shutter speed, as you guessed I wanted the water droplets to be caught in motion. Composition was deliberate, I just get a little tired of being conventional and predictable - but I agree I need to improve the set up. Shutter speed- as you will no doubt have guessed I varied it but mostly I used 1/60 sec, I will try some more 1/60 to 1/125, maybe 1/30 too slow the water is too ill defined. I think we have yet another wet day today.

Paul the vertical streaks are rain drops, I hoped to show them more clearly, I think the problem here is that the background is not dark enough, the droplets do not contrast enough to make them readily visible.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hopefully increasing the SS should offer better definition for the rain. No harm in being different, but it needs to work and the balance I feel isn’t working here.

Dry here, but the Ouse has burst it’s bank so part of the village up north will no doubt be flooded, but fingers crossed the other house should be ok, trust you are fine!

[David Roach]

Love the SH right where it needs to be, the perch and the water drops. BG is killer and I'd keep as is. Yes to faster SS to better define rain. This canvas has a great rainy day mood... TFS

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Jon .... love it , when folks are going OOTB .
IT is hard to create a great image though .
A lot of trail and error ....to make it work , I think you need really hard rain and then experimenting with the SS and DOF . Easy to say from my comfy chair .
I personally do not like the awkward pose of the subject ....
Keep experimenting ..... :cheers:

TFS Andreas