Northern Mockingbird

[Peter Farrell]

Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f9, 1/1250, iso800, manual, HH. PP in PSE8, slight crop and sharpening. Shooting angle was a liitle too steep.

[Julie Kenward]

Peter, you've got a beautiful composition here. Nicely seen and frames with the perch moving the eye of the viewer across the frame.

The entire image feels a little bit light on exposure - even the greens of the tree feel a little washed out. I noticed a small spike on your histogram on the right (highlight) side that I think represents the small hot area at the center of the bird's belly. If you know how to use the clone tool you can probably go over that area with the surrounding feathers and remove it altogether.

You caught a nice catch light in his eye but the head is a little bit past the focal plane. Always take your first quick photograph so you get an image but then wait and see if you can get that bird to turn a bit towards you so the viewer can engage in the eye contact.

There seems to be some noise in the tail feather area. Did you bring this up in PP? You might want to run some noise reduction there if you did. Also, it appears your branch is sharper than the head (accounts for his leaning back a bit) so make sure you are focusing your camera on the head area.

[John Chardine]

I like the design of this image a lot. Jules has suggested some good things to do to the image to improve. Agree with the self critique that the angle is a bit too steep. I think the image would benefit from a little darkening of the midtones.

[Peter Farrell]

Julie & John,
Thank you for your comments on this image. This is a great place to learn.
Peter