Scarlet Tanager

[Gayle Clement]

Scarlet tanagers land on Grand Isle, a Louisiana barrier island, when forced down by stormy weather. They search out mulberry trees. Many of the mulberry trees on the island were destroyed during the four hurricanes that struck the area (Katrina, Rita, Ike, Gustav) in the last few years. One especially beautiful tree remains outside of the small city hall. When the employees saw me photographing birds in the trees they invited me up to the balcony. This is a photo from there.

Feedback needed. I could easily clone out the lighter area in the background but it doesn't bother me. Is it too much of a distraction?

Nikon D2Xs
Nikon 500mm f/4
Nikkor teleconverter 14TC-EII
Focal Length 700mm
Aperture f/5.6
Shutter Speed 1/320s
Exposure Comp -0.3

[Fabs Forns]

Wow, what a cutie pie! Very sharp and well placed. I'd go back on the red saturation to shoe more detail in the plumage.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Great to see one at eye level, good eye contact and soft light. I wish for a more uniform BG and agree regarding desaturating the reds a few points.

[Randy Stout]

Gayle:

Lovely bird. Besides the advice above, I would selectively lighten the shadow area around the eye a bit. It really helps the eye stand out.

Randy

[Scott Frye]

Great detail in the blacks and love the colors

[Randy Stout]

Gayle:

Just the small tweak I mentioned, a little lighter in the shadow area around the eye.

Randy

[Stu Bowie]

Gayle, I really like the two high contrast colours on him. Lovely light, and agree with Axel to have a more uniform BG.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

nice looking bird with beautiful colors and nice pose!

[Chris Kotze]

Super colours and pose. Great looking bird

[Arthur Morris]

Sweet specimen of this species and I love the clean look of the image. I'm with Randy only I would advise lightening the whole face.... See the Red-ucation thread in Educational Resources.