Snowy Day

[Dave Leroy]

Another Golden Crowned Sparrow.

50D, 500mm f4, 1/500, f4, Av, EC +2, ISO400.

I cropped a bit from left and the bottom to get bird out of centre. I also removed an interfering blade of grass. I had to build the little catch light. Need to get over not wanting to carry a flash around I guess.

The bird was behind a little bit of snow, but I think it still works.

Dave

[Julie Kenward]

Dave, I have an image very similar to this one - same bird - same snow on his beak - but you got a much better HA on yours than I have on mine! I like the pose very much - would suggest a bit more DOF next time to get more of the back half in focus - but, that said, you did a very nice job here as well.

I don't really understand the composition - why leave in all the foliage to the right when it doesn't add anything beautiful to the image? This is one of the big questions I ask myself on every image. "What should stay and what should go?" My determination is if it highlights the focal point (the bird in this case) and it's in good condition, then let it stay. If it's too OOF, in bad condition or just plain ugly then I try to find a way to get it out in the composition of the image or in the pp.

Since your bird is looking right, I re-composed this with less space on the left so he gets more room in the frame to look "into space". I cleaned up the little bit of foliage that was in the two upper corners using the eyedropper tool and the soft brush (but you could just as easily use the clone or patch tools.) I also lowered him in the frame a bit, removing some of the snow at the bottom. This gives the bottom of the frame more "weight" and helps to anchor all that white at the top. Lastly, I added a bit more presence to the darker and midtones and brightened your catch light a bit using levels adjustments. See what you think...

[Dave Leroy]

Jules. You're breaking my heart. I had liked the foliage. A bit of framing for the bird and kind of added to the season of wintry look.

I think that for your version I would add a bit more room which should be easy to do and still have the cleaner look.

As for dof, at f/4 it is 3/8" in front and back, at f8 it would be 1" front and back. I guess I could of had that at ISO800. I think I need to get the flash out to see if that would stop the action.

Thanks for looking and commenting Jules.

Dave