This is a female pied kingfisher sitting in the early morning sun in Egypt. She was very cooperating and I have some pictures with different bg and different "perches". One I already posted in the "Hand of Man" forum.
In this image I am not sure about the grass at the left side. IOne moment I think it is disturbing the picture, in the other moment I don't think so and like the diagonal lines. With some effort, it would be possible to clone the grass away, but I am not sure, if the picture will improve, doing that.
There are other pictures, where the bird is sitting in the other direction, the diagonal lines from the grass in the back and may be not so prominent. There they can easily become cropped off to only few light green lines, but the angle of the bird and the sun I like more in this picture. I would love to show both pictures for comparing the effect...
It would be wonderful, if you give me your advice.
Mark III Canon 100 - 400 + 1.7 TC
f 5.6 (+TC) / 1/400 / ISO 800
I think that the grass adds a bit to this image. It would add more if the bird were facing the other direction and moved closer to the grass. On my laptop, the breast looks a little hot, but I can't say for sure until I go down to the office on my "real" computer.
You have create a nice image. I very much like the composition. A little bit bright on my monitor but I am sure it can be fixed. The grass blades don't bother me at all. I would have loved to have the background a little bit more diffused but there are times when you can't control all the factors. Congratulations!!!
I have moved this to Eager to Learn in hopes that you may get more helpful comments there.
I like the grass a lot better than the dirt background... The basic compositon is perfect but the sharpness is questionable. The exposure (and other) problems were a result of a poor light angle. In all but backlit situations it is almost always best to have your shadow pointed directly at the subject. In your image the light is from the left and from well behind the subject. This created numerous problems.
Later and love, artie
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I like the grass in the image as well. Artie has give you some great advice to improve your shooting angle, but sometimes you aren't able to get the sun behind you. In those situations you might be well-served to learn how to use fill flash to pop a little light into the shadows and reduce overall contrast on your subject.
The Grass looks fine here and comp looks good. Seems a hot spot on the chest where you loose some detail in the hot spot and some shadow areas on the wing, you might try to brighten that wing but seems like a lot of work unless you have time to play. Looking now at Artie and Judd seems like they also agree. It is a pretty bird but not sure you can make this too much better.
Thanks for your good advice. I have to admit, that I did not realise all the problems with the light. For me the sun in the face of the bird DID not look too bad. But know I can see all the nits.
As the bird was so cooperative I will check my other pictures, if the angle of the sun is better in another image.
Thank you, this is great learning!
Rosl
Pied Kingfisher
