Great Tit (Parus major)

[Justin C]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jjcowtan/720%20pxl%20jpeg's/Great-Tit_JC_20D_071208_0125-1_filtered.jpg

Canon 20D, Canon 500mm f4, 1/1000 sec @ f5.6, ISO 400.
Arca B1 bolted onto cross member of home-made semi-permanent hide.
Full frame, levels, hue/saturation, Neatimage on background.


Hi,

Took this image of a Great Tit last week just as the sun was getting low and illuminating the distant out of focus bracken.



All comments always welcome and appreciated.

[Robert O'Toole]

The earthtone BG looks nice and the subject is way sharp. Pose is great and the perch looks good also.
I would like to see the bird just slightly more off center, but thats a minor point. Also another minor point would be about 5% more HA towards the camera.

Robert

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Justin, Welcome. Where are you from? Love the image. Great BKGR SH, and COMP. Could have been a VERT, or could use a bit more room above the bird. heck, a SQ would work. Any idea why the darker BKGR to the left? (That bugs me a bit.)

What IS the BKGR?

[Justin C]

Hi Arthur,
Thanks for the welcome.
I'm from South-west England. Just noticed I havn't entered location details yet, I must rectify that.
The background is frost coated bracken (mainly the lighter coloured bracken stems) lit by late afternoon sunlight.
The slightly darker area you mention is just where the bracken isn't lying as uniformly flat and dense as the rest, hence the slightly darker appearence.
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.



Thanks also to Robert for the suggestion and comments.

[Arthur Morris]

You are most welcome. And thanks for the info. Perhaps you could re-arrange the offending bracken... It is amazing how many good photographers from overseas are participating here at BPN.

[Stephen Stephen]

Justin I love details and colours of the bird, the catchlight in the eye as well as the BG.

I'll echo Artie's comment about wishing for a bit more room above the head.

[John Ippolito]

Justin, lovely pose, perch, details, and BG. A bit more on top would enhance this very nice image.

[Tony Whitehead]

Lovely BG and detail on the bird. I would mask the sharpening off the perch and the dark area of BG should be easily managed with clone stamp in lighten mode. A crop from the right would help decentre the bird a little. Well done, Justin. Looking forward to more of your images. Here's a quick and dirty attempt. How's this look to you?

[Justin C]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the suggestions.
I like the repost very much. The composition is much improved with the small crop from behind the bird.
I hadn't really noticed the darker area of background untill Arthur pointed it out but seeing your version with that area corrected, I much prefer it that way.