Altamira Oriole

[Roy Priest]

Yet another one from Alan Murphy's Workshop.

Nikon D3
Lens: VR 500mm F/4G
Focal Length: 500mm
Focus Mode: Manual
Aperture: F/4
Shutter Speed: 1/6400s
Exposure Mode: Aperture Priority
Exposure Comp.: -0.3EV
ISO Sensitivity: ISO 2500

[Julie Kenward]

Roy, check your histogram on the yellows - you've got a big spike on the right side and it's got to be them. Try pulling the luminance (in Camera Raw) or the lightness (hue/saturation in PS) to soften them a bit.

Comp-wise I'd take a little off the top - the image feels bottom heavy as it is presented here since there is nothing in the top of the image at all. I like the wing spread shown here - nice freeze of the action, too. A slight step to the left might have shown that back wing a bit better but then I realize you couldn't predict what angle he was going to come in at!

[Gordon McKechnie]

Nice shot - like the angle of of the oriole. For me, only thing that detracts is that the perch looks sharper than the bird. Perhaps a bit more selective sharpening will do the trick

[pat lillich]

oh man, what a gorgeous bird - great pose, incredible colors. would love to see it with the crop Julie suggests and Gordon's sharpening on the bird.

[John Chardine]

Hi Roy, nice bird and really nice setup. Agree with the comments above. Before I read them my first thought was the space at the top with everything happening more or less in the lower half. This is not helped by the uniform BG. Some blotchiness introduced into the top BG might counteract this.

[Sid Garige]

Roy,

Smart sharpen and bit off of the top as Julie suggested.
Excellent job with vertical comp.

[Gloria Archilla]

Oh my goodness, I love the color and those wings! Definitely, the crop and sharpening are what it needed. Great shot!!

Gloria

[William Malacarne]

Sid

Really like the repost a lot, very well done.

Bill