Sitting Pretty

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Canon 7D + 400 5.6
ISO=400
f/5.6
1/1600
HH, morning light, center sensor, subject distance 25 feet
LRIII--->CS5: sharpening, NR and clone adjustments on bottom edge

[John Chardine]

Really nice Jeff. The environment is very pleasing and frames the bird nicely. I think the bird looking out of the frame works. The light is harsh and I think you could have used some HDR technique to reduce the contrast in the image. Dodging and burning, Shadows and highlights come to mind, but also the sliders under Exposure in ACR or the Adjustment brush could be used.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

John,

Thanks for the feedback,..I did dodge and burn the image and added light around the head to distinguish from the background. The light was not too bad around 9:00 am good advice on HDR have not used that technique for a long time.

[P-A. Fortin]

Cannot tell about HDR since I know nothing about it, but I love the environment and background on this one. Head angle would normally draw my attention out of the image, but somehow the flowers seem to bring in some balance and gets my attention back toward the image.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Jeff, I like the compositional thinking and the bits of color provided by the flowers really makes for a nice image. It's always hard to know what to do with the bits of foliage like this but I think you did a good job of making it look not too busy. Really like the pose and head angle.