Dark-eyed Junco

[Eric Patdu]

The branch cast a shadow on this bird. Does it take away from the photo? Is the shadow undesirable?

And of course, C&C on the other aspects of the photo is also very much welcome. :S3:


Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) L 6.25"
Shooting Info: March 22, 2011, Canon XSi + 300mm f/4L IS + 1.4x, 420mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO 800, 0.7 exp. compensation, hand-held

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/5558654316_839e03e894_b.jpg

[Cody Covey]

Yeah the shadow does distract a bit from the image. Also the bright spots in the BG are distracting as wel. It is well exposed though and very sharp. I just bought this lens and it makes me happy to see these kinds of results with such a low SS.

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks for the comments Cody. Thought of making the bright spots in the BG more subdued but I'm not that good in PS that I think I'll just make the photo worse so decided to leave it as is.

Congratulations on your purchase of this lens. I too had just recently purchased it and haven't really used it that much. I really like this lens as it gives great details especially on this one considering that I used a 1.4x TC to get this shot.

[Julie Kenward]

Eric, although the bird does look sharp and well exposed, the shadow and the BG do keep this from being a really strong image. Technically, it's strong (except for the shadow) but from an artistic standpoing the BG really distracts from the focal point of the image. Next time, try moving around to get a cleaner, clearer BG and try out some different apertures to see where the sweet spot is between sharpness of the subject and cleaness of the BG.

[Jeff Dyck]

Excellent advice from Jules.

Since nobody mentioned it, I will --> the biggest detractor for me is not the shadow, it's your Flickr advertisement right across the bird!

[Eric Patdu]

@Julie: thanks for the detailed comments. I'll keep those in mind in my future shots.

@Jeff: thank you too for your comment. I'm sorry that my watermark bothers you that you need to put an exclamation mark at the end of your comment. I would prefer though if you would comment on the technical aspects of the photo which is what this board is for. I put watermarks on my online photos which some photographers also do and I try my best to make it as faint and as small as possible. Anyway, thank you again for your time in commenting on my thread.