Happy Red-winged Blackbird

[Antonio Lopez]

Hi, everyone. I really enjoy this forum and find it very educational. I live in central Texas, west of San Antonio. This picture of the Red-winged Blackbird was taken at the Anahuac NWR a couple of years ago. It was shot as a JPG, before I knew the advantages of RAW. This as shot, no processing. Thank you for your comments.

Aper. f/8
Shutter 1/640 =0.3 ev
ISO 400
600 mm + 1.4 TC
Canon 20D

[Jan Wegener]

why didn't you process it ?

It's a nice scene, with a few problems. First the composition. I would suggest to drop it quite a bit from the left and add canvas on top and on the right
The second problem is the very harsh light, which bring those shadows and black without details...notmuch you can do about it anymore..
I would also suggest some more sharpening..

The last thing is my personal taste, as I find this perch to busy and those leafes in front of the breast and tail are not really nice :) A direct eye contact is also more interesting for the viewer :)

Hope that's okay, to write what I think :)

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Antonio, bienvenido a BPN :)

Jan really did a good job of critiquing the major aspects of this image. Walking to your right could have been abit better.
Hope we can all help you improve your skills and again, red carpet welcome!!!