Bright and beautiful

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

In this part of the country the Northern Cardinals are absolutely breathtaking, what with their new feathers in place for the winter and so I tought I would share one of the many that are in my backyard. I hope you all like him as much as I do. Shooting data follows:
Nikon D3S
2011:10:25 15:53:05
600mm
600mm (in 35mm film)
Subject dist: 9.4m
1/800 sec, f/5.6
Mode: Manual
Metering: Multi-segment
Exp comp: +1/3
ISO: 900
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 34.9MB
Image size: 1141 x 1491
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: Adobe RGB

[Randy Stout]

Wheeler:

Cardinals do make for great subjects, very showy. The light angle has given him a nice sense of form from the soft shadows on his left. It has left his eye looking a bit glassy however, and you might be able to do a bit of eye work to make the pupil a bit more distinct.

Looks like your plane of focus was slightly posterior to the head, as the bill is out of focus, while the perch is pretty sharp.

I like your basic comp., perhaps just a little bit too large in the frame.

The background is moderately busy, but if you feel comfortable doing it, removing the slim branch just to the right of his face would help IMO.

Look forward to more.

Cheers

Randy

[Doug Brown]

Hi Mac. Nicely controlled reds and good sharpness in the body. I think Randy hit the important points here. Focus is slightly off, the eye doesn't look quite right (I might darken the pupil a bit), and the BG is a little busy.