These are gorgeous birds, and you've caught him with nice detail and great eye contact. I had a Flame-colored Tanager against that same building a few years back, and the building clashed so much with the bird that I completely desaturated the bg, with some success (at least that's what I thought). The clash isn't nearly as bad here, but some might find it a little distracting. Just food for thought.
The subject is beautiful and looks great. A slight head turn away from you would have yielded an
improved head angle, but as is, it's just fine. I rather like the bg color and the way that the bird
shows against it. However, the bottom of the frame looks odd, all dark like that, and so abruptly.
A suggestion would be to extend the orange color of the bg all the way through the bottom of the frame.
Actually, the time to do that would have been at the point of capture by simply lowering your shooting
perspective slightly...
Last edited by Shawn Zierman; 09-30-2012 at 02:40 AM.
Shaun; yep good comment too quick for me and was on tripod, should have shifted focus point around!
however easy task to paint out as color is very uniform above :-)
Yes to a bit less of a head turn; about 3 degrees towards us is ideal for a field guide portrait. Nice bird and image. I'd take a nice bit off the bottom of each version, just a bit less than half way up the perch behind the birdie.
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Silver throated Tanager
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