African Darter

Nikon D300S, Nikon 300mm F4 lens.
F/4, ISO 200, 1/1250, 300mm
Taken in a Bird Hide in a open reserve in Pretoria
The picture has been zoomed to 100% and cropped otherwise no alterations made.

https://rr5uiw.blu.livefilestore.com...ter.jpg?psid=1

Hi Scott..The image has nice colour and good BG except the branches crossing (I know this hide well). I think your DOF let you down at f4, maybe f8 or 9 may have worked better to get more head in focus. Also the crop is a too tight as you have clipped the left wing. If you have zoomed in that much and cropped you should have more space around the bird, this should also improve IQ as the crop is less. Also the black feathers on the body are lacking detail,maybe select that area and lift the shadows a bit to recover. Anyway hope I have helped a bit and welcome:)

Scott:

Good comments from Dumay. DOF is a challenge here, because you want the bird critically sharp without making too much of the background in focus. The crop is too tight as mentioned, and if you back off some it will improve the image quality as well.

Consider posting the uncropped file so we can look at what you have to work with, and perhaps we can provide some more thoughts on how to handle this one. At the bottom of the quick reply box, on the right, is a button for "go advanced". If you hit that, you will have the option to manage attachments, and you can repost the original file in this same thread.

Welcome aboard. It is a great place to share and learn!

Cheers

Randy

Dumay and Randy have covered all the bases. I just wanted to stop by and say "Howdy."

Its probably easier to fix a busy background in PS than to try get a bird sharp :)

After a few years of experience (or sooner for fast learners), folks who are gonna improve will begin to look for situations where the bird is on a clean perch and the background is relatively distant. That has been the main ticket to my success :) (That does not of course mean that that approach is for everyone; but if you do go for a wider approach then the habitat needs to be more pleasing rather than chaotic.) The background here is not chaotic but it might be at f/16.

Here is the Original Pic.

http://public.blu.livefilestore.com/...782.JPG?psid=1

With a bit of a crop from the left and below, small crops that is, I would much prefer this to the ORIG post.

Scott:

You have plenty of canvas to work with here, and I think that there are a couple of decent crop options. I am at work now, but hopefully someone will pop in and show you their ideas. I will revisit tonight when I can play with it a bit. Thanks for the repost.

Randy

Hey Scott, I fiddled with your image a bit, cropped on left and bottom and also added another background. This BG is completely unnatural, just used a texture. I used it on purpose to prove a point, if your background is crap is can be fixed (to a less extreme point than this) , but if your subject is crap, its crap :)

http://jat0ia.bay.livefilestore.com/...ott.jpg?psid=1

Johan, It looks like you did at least a decent job with the selection; what technique did you use? To put it mildly, I am not a fan of textured BKGRs :)

Hi Johan,

Thanks, I am also not a big fan of editing beyond minor touch ups but the background change here is really significant and job done is very decent.
It certainly does add a different perspective when taking pics.

Scott