barn swallows

[Wendy Kates]

I shot these swallows early one morning at the local pond. Actually, I took about 50 shots...each with a different pose, so I'll most likely post other ones to see which one everyone likes best. In this one, I really liked the wing-spread on the middle bird.
Canon Rebel Xsi
300 mm f/4 lens with 1.4 extender
ISO 200
f / 5.6, 1/800 s
Induro tripod

Sharpened in PS 4 Raw; highlights slightly adjusted; added luminance to blues and oranges; cropped
I wasn't sure how much to crop...I kept all the thistles in the photo, although perhaps it would be better to crop the one to the far right.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Wendy, I like what you are doing with the composition in this one but I agree about the crop - I would lose the thistle on the right which would make the diagonal of the three birds go through the upper right corner of the frame, if that makes any sense! Looks like the light was strong, even though the sun looks fairly low in the catchlights. In this situation you will have to sacrifice the shadows for the highlights, which is what you did in this one. Had all three birds been lit evenly by the sun you would not have this issue, but the only bird that is evenly lit is the lower one. Keep them coming, look forward to more!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Agree with Kerry you are on the right track here multiple subjects in a natural habitat very nice. Very original composition and the image has a good feel and shows the beauty of nature. The extra space on the right does nothing to help the image a tighter crop on the subjects would help- that's where the story is. The darks might be blocked check the histogram and consider adding some fill light to the top bird and dogging or lightening the head and eye areas. Nice moment in Natute keep em comming!

[Wendy Kates]

Thanks for your comments. Jeff...when you suggest adding fill light, I assume you are suggesting that I add it to the original image in Camera Raw (in PS CS4), but I can't figure out how to implement a command selectively in that program (e.g., adding fill light to the top bird only).

[Nancy Phillips]

The grouping is very nice, I particularly like the wing extension on the middle bird. I agree with the others about cropping out that right hand thistle.