Scott's Oriole

[Charlie VanTassel]

The southwestern desert is full of flowers and insects right now. This Scott's Oriole was nice enough to land in front of me at one of it's favorite food sources, a Yucca flower.

D700
500mm vr
1.4x tc
1/1000
f9
iso 640
no flash
blind

[Colin Knight]

I would like this a little sharper. It looks like you nailed the exposure- the darks have plenty of detail and the whites are preserved. Nice catchlight, perch and background! Do you have another one with his head angled a little more toward you?

Sharpness and HA are the only areas I see for for improvement.

[Charlie VanTassel]

Thanks for the feedback! Better?

[Colin Knight]

Oh yeah! Thanks for the repost. Outstanding job. :)

[Arthur Morris]

For me, the original post is far superior and I am OK with the head angle; another 1 or 2 degrees towards you would have been the bomb. The only thing that bugs me is the dark in front/lighter in the back BKGR. Be right back :)

[Arthur Morris]

Cropped nearly to 3X2. Toned down the BKGR and de-saturated the REDs and Magentas in the BKGR. Not sure if the BKGR is better....

[Arthur Morris]

ps: Love the EXP control and the great detail in the BLACKS. Great flower too!

[Charlie VanTassel]

Thank you, Artie... I do have one more with maybe a slighty better head angle. Probably should've posted it to begin with... I also tried to work the background per your suggestions. I like what you've done. The background was bugging me a bit too.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW Charlie. And yes, the one in Pane #8 is far superior to the others. It is important to realize why: in nearly all case light above/dark below or light in front/dark behind is vastly preferred to light below/dark above or dark in front/light behind (the latter as in the image in Pane #1). Our eye is always dragged to the lighter areas so it is almost always better to have the lighter areas above or in front of the bird.

Great bird BTW and a killer flower! And the one in Pane 8 has a perfect head angle! What were you thinking? :) :confused: :)

[Steve Canuel]

Beautiful bird and perch. I'm partial to the second one.

[Don Lacy]

Beautiful Bird the 3x2 presentation works much better for me.