Hooded Oriole enjoys the tub

[nancy hazen]

I have a lot of Hooded Orioles coming to the hummingbird feeders and bird baths. They are so sharp though and as soon as they spot the camera they're off. I softened the bg with Gblur, but is it still too distracting? I think I need to trim that plant.

I am also experimenting with CS5 and added a little HDR toning. At least I think it was HDR toning.

<table cellSpacing="0" cellPadding="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr class="lookatme"><th>Exposure</th><td>0.001 sec (1/1250)</td></tr><tr class="lookatme"><th>Aperture</th><td>f/8.0</td></tr><tr class="lookatme"><th>Focal Length</th><td>400 mm</td></tr><tr><th>ISO Speed</th><td>2000</td></tr></tbody></table>Thanks for looking.

[Joel Eade]

I like the bird and the water spray but something is funky in the BG....it looks blurred except behind the water spray, I think the blur is fine but you have to include the whole BG.

.Also the bird bath looks a little un-level, it is certainly an image worth working on.

[dankearl]

I agree about the BG, The bird is really sharp and well done.
You obviously wanted to keep the water drops, so I wouldn't blur the rest at all.
The drops are nice.

[nancy hazen]

I like the bird and the water spray but something is funky in the BG....it looks blurred except behind the water spray, I think the blur is fine but you have to include the whole BG.

.Also the bird bath looks a little un-level, it is certainly an image worth working on.


Now that I look at the background again, I see what you mean. :2eyes2: I should have noticed that. The background has a fairly busy grouping of plant shoots.
I'll check the level on the pic too. Thanks for the help.
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

I agree about the BG, The bird is really sharp and well done.
You obviously wanted to keep the water drops, so I wouldn't blur the rest at all.
The drops are nice.

Thanks. I see now that there is a split in the bg. :eek: I was so focused on toning down the background I didn't check to see the split. I will fix that.
Thanks for your help..
Nancy

[nancy hazen]

I reworked the shot - not exactly the same pp, but I didn't soften that bg very much. Is it better?
Thanks
Nancy

[wendell westfall]

Nancy, love the bird, love the water, love it all except the background. I guess we all agree on that . . . it needs to be blurred out . . .

[nancy hazen]

Nancy, love the bird, love the water, love it all except the background. I guess we all agree on that . . . it needs to be blurred out . . .
Thanks Wendell.
I think the easiest solution is to cut the plant behind the fountain.
Now if I can get the Oriole to pose again...:S3::bg3:
Nancy

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Nancy, I love these birds but had never seen a juvi - very cute! What a treat to have them in your yard.

I won't talk about the background, as I think that's been covered... What I do notice beyond that is that the bird is not as bright as the bg, which makes it hard for the eye to stay where it should be. If you can tone down the level of the bg it would help a lot. You captured a super pose, have nice details and a sharp eye, and the color looks good. Since the bg was so close, it would be better to shoot at a wider aperture which will help to blur it out. I love everything about this except for the..., well, you know... :c3: Cropping a bit from the top will help keep the eye on the bird and also eliminate a lot of the brightness back there.

[nancy hazen]

[QUOTE=Kerry Perkins;692036]Hi Nancy, I love these birds but had never seen a juvi - very cute! What a treat to have them in your yard.

I won't talk about the background, as I think that's been covered... What I do notice beyond that is that the bird is not as bright as the bg, which makes it hard for the eye to stay where it should be. If you can tone down the level of the bg it would help a lot. You captured a super pose, have nice details and a sharp eye, and the color looks good. Since the bg was so close, it would be better to shoot at a wider aperture which will help to blur it out. I love everything about this except for the..., well, you know... :c3: Cropping a bit from the top will help keep the eye on the bird and also eliminate a lot of the brightness back there.[/QUOTE


Thanks Kerry. The change in brightness is a problem, but to be honest, the BG is too interferring to try to make more changes. I am going to move the fountain a bit so it is away from that red buckwheat. The Orioles seem to like it, so hopefully I'll get more chances. This young one was so cute, I was bummed about the background.
Thanks for the ideas to try to salvage it though.
Nancy