Wood Pigeon

I've not had chance to post much over the summer but hoping to have a bit more time now. Here is a portrait of a Wood Pigeon taken in may garden this weekend. The original was horizontal which I cropped to vertical. All adjustments in lightroom.

Nikon D7000, 300mm f4 af + 1.4x tc. 1/1000 sec f5.6 ISO400.

All critique welcome.

looks very good to me. I like the light on the bird against the background. Very Sharp. The eye really draws me in.

-Dave

The eye is nice and sharp and holds my attention with a nice head angle. I tend to agree with a few others that ideally it's good to get the sun over the shoulder so as to avoid the shadows, love the background. Might have been able to stop down for a little more DOF?

Thanks Dave and Jon for the comments. I could have gone for more depth of field but wouldn't have wanted to drop the shutter speed lower as the shot was hand held. If I increase the iso much above 400 I find I have to do some noise reduction on the image. I do feel I should use a tripod more and that would have allowed a slower speed and smaller aperture.

Nice light. I've never seen an eye like that -- interesting. A tripod would have helped here, allowing a smaller aperture and usually more accurate focus (although that's not a criticism here), but sometimes the time to grab one will let the subject escape.

I could see a little cropped from the bottom unless you want this particular aspect ratio, but that's just an idle thought. No problem as it is.

Very nice portrait you have here. Loving your background. I might rework the crop a little to remove some of the dead space on top...maybe even add a little to the left if you have it.

Iain agree Marina re the crop, you have some fantastic detail don't think it needs anything it looks spot on, can't stop looking at that eye.

Keith.

Thanks for the feedback on the crop. I have taken some off the top and added a little on the left with a tiny it off the bottom as well. The only thing I am unsure of is that the crop is now quite square. Do you think the new crop works?

Iain square crop works just fine for me,looks good!

The new crop works for me because it fits the subject nicely. My inclination would be to take even a little more off the bottom, and maybe a little less removed from the top. I would darken the bottom subtly with a gradient from the lower right, to help keep the eye in the center of the frame.

Thanks Diane

Do you mean something like this?

Yes, or maybe a touch less -- all subjective. But what counts is, what do you think?

I did wonder if I had darkened it slightly too much but don't think it looks unnatural.
Thanks everyone for your comments and advice.