My First Post - Dark-Eyed Junco

[Jean Chang]

http://jeanchang.smugmug.com/Birds/Other-Birds/DC98410-2/760092214_x7Mfd-XL.jpg

Hello,

This is my first post here, and I'm intimidated after seeing the amazing shots others have posted, but I would appreciate any helpful advice you can give me.

This was a set-up on my back deck.

Nikon D300, 300mm f/4 with 1.4TC
Very overcast day. Shutter speed 1/80, ISO 800, +1/3EV, no flash.
Cropped, Topaz DeNoise, sharpened. Added a little canvas to the left.

Thanks!

Jean

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Big welcome. Loved the setting, BG, shallow DOF, pose and the composition. Exposure looks fine. There seems to be a slight camera shake. Neat image of not-so-easy bird. Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[Randy Stout]

Jean:

Very nice first post. Lovely colors, good exposure,nice head angle, snow on perch is nice.

I would encourage you to try and work at a higher shutter speed if at all possible. The light was obviously low, but 1/80s is tough to get consistently sharp images of birds at.

I would much rather trade a bit of noise from increased ISO for higher shutter speed. Easier to fix a noisy sharp image than a low noise blurry image.

Cheers

Randy

[Jean Chang]

Kaustubh and Randy,

Thank you both very much for replying. Yes, my shutter speed was definitely too low, even on a tripod. I forgot to mention that one other thing probably deteriorated the quality considerably and that was because I was shooting THROUGH the window glass. (Talk about a fair weather photographer, right?)

I will increase my ISO and see if that works out better next time.

Thanks again!

Jean

[Ted Willcox]

Its nice to see you photographing one of the little guys to many times they get passed by. Try a more vertical composition adding more of the post, putting the bird higher up in the composition.
Ted

[Myer Bornstein]

Nice potrait of the Junco. I wonder if there was not some reflection from the window on the right side of the BG

[Jean Chang]

Ted and Myer,

Thanks to both of you for commenting.

Ted, I tried the more vertical comp, adding more of the post.

Myer, I tried cloning out the light area on the right side of BG, but not sure if it did any good or if I just made a mess.

Does it look better overall?
http://www.jeanachang.com/photos/760277259_SGS4r-XL.jpg

[Bill Ragan]

I liked it a lot, though would critique that the bottom breast feathers on the lower right hand side seemed somewhat overexposed and could use some burning in photoshop. The detail might not be there, though. What mode was your in-camera light meter set to?

[Jean Chang]

I had it set to center-weighted average. On my monitor it didn't look overexposed, and the histogram looked fine in Lightroom with no clipping. I always have a tough time with these birds like chickadees and juncos because of the darks and whites on them. I can try some selective touch up with Lightroom or Photoshop again. Thanks for noticing that. It's the little things I sometimes miss.

[Aidan Briggs]

The breast feathers look perfectly exposed to me, though the snow looks a bit bright in the repost. I would try a bit of noise reduction on the BG.

Looking Forward to more!

[Jean Chang]

Hi Aidan,

Thanks for checking out my photo. I agree, the snow is pretty blown out. I used Topaz DeNoise on the background, but I don't think I used enough.

BTW, I looked at your portfolio--it's beautiful!

Thanks again,

Jean

[Ted Willcox]

Hi Jean I like your second post. This composition makes the image a lot more interesting. Way to go.
Ted

[Jean Chang]

Hi Ted,

Thanks! I'm not sure if the post is competing with the bird, though. Do you think I should have cropped some off the bottom?

Jean