Northern Cardinal

[Jim Cumming]

Hello everyone...this is my first post here and thought I'd share this pic of the Northern Cardinal. This is probably the best picture I've taken of him. No sooner did I snap, he flew off deep into the forest.
taken with Canon 40D and 400 5.6 lens

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/4311299477_9f4f6fcb26_b.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

A big welcome to BPN.

A very nice look back pose with perfect head angle, parallel to the sensor plane. Your bird is sharp, with good DOF, well exposed. I do think the image could go just a 1/3 brighter, personal taste really.

I would consider a version with a sig. crop in from the right side, as the area to the right of the trunk doesn't add a lot.

There is a little noise creeping into the background, but not objectionable.

Be sure to post your camera settings, f/stop, shutter speed, ISO, metering settings, etc. It really helps with our critiquing.

Cheers

Randy

[Deborah Hanson]

Good detail in the feathers and the eye, and I like the color. If it was mine I would try a more vertical crop, with maybe a little more room above the birds head.

Deb