White-throated Sparrow

[P-A. Fortin]

Taken in a park near the workplace of my girlfriend (of course she was late and I had to find a way to spend my time).

I wish the head was turned a little bit toward me. Would also have prefered a smaller perch without the leaf hiding the tail.

Canon 60D, 100-400L @ 340mm, ISO 400, 1/2000, f/6.3, Flash 580 ExII ETTL at -1 2/3. NR and sharpening in CS5. Cloned out a small leaf coming out of the back of the bird.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi P-A., your self-assessment is very good! I agree that a smaller perch and a better head angle would improve the image but this is pretty nice. A little contrasty to my eye. I would crop away the right part of the image and make this a vertical.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

P-A,

You are on the right track here when I first saw this picture I liked it and made a nice connection with the subject. It is displayed in a beautiful form and the pose is very attractive. Kerry provides some solid advise and as vert it might work as well. Try his advise and post again we can review both options. This is real goos work,..really like this one.

ps - nice job with the fill flash and the - 1 2/3 setting avoiding the over flash.
PSS - great eye, denise once tole me a well lit eye can make or break a picture and she is right.

[P-A. Fortin]

Thanks. I'll be quite busy over the next few days but will make sure to post a vertical crop as soon as I can.

[Linwood Ferguson]

I would crop away the right part of the image and make this a vertical.

Or maybe square. I know most people don't like square, but sometimes it works.

The most unfortunate part for me is the leaf over the tail, can't do anything now for that really.

But the lighting is just excellent.

[P-A. Fortin]

Finally had some time to look at this.

I actually had to go for a rather squarish crop (although still rectangular). I tried some vertical variants but I always ended up cutting up the tail (for what is shown of it), which really did not look good.

I had to clone out a part of a leaf on the lower right corner Not my greatest clone out job ever, but the aim of the post was to try a different crop so I did not put too much energy into it.