Baltimore Oriole

[Nick Palmieri]

Shot this guy in a local park in NJ this past spring. Tripod mounted Canon EOS MDMK4, 600mm, ISO 1000, f/6.3, SS 1250. Had a couple issues with it so I thought I would see what others have to say.

[Randy Stout]

Nick:

Very colorful, nice light, open bill and tongue a plus.

The main concern for me is that the bird isn't terribly sharp. Some of the leaves are sharper, suspect some motion blur. Mild amount of noise in BG, not sig. for me.

Cheers

Randy

[Bill Dix]

Great pose and colors. I had the same reaction: some of the leaves are sharper than the Oriole. And I might consider desaturating the greens just a tad.

[Gary Hamilton]

I like the composition and inclusion of the nest but I have to agree that the oriole is a bit softer than the leaves--probably due to movement by the bird (techs not listed so that's based on the fact that there appears to be enough depth of field to otherwise capture a sharper image of the bird). Cheers.

[Don Lacy]

HI Nick is this a large crop as the techs that are posted should not have resulted in the quality issues observed. 1250 shutter speed is more then sufficient to cover movement of the bird and iso 1000 should not have resulted in this much noise in the BG.

[Nick Palmieri]

Thanks guys. Yes I need to go back and see where the focus point is and how big a crop. I processed this image a while ago and put it in a temporary folder (possible to delete) and just came across it. I am bugged buy the issues brought up by you guys and I'm not thrilled with some of the shadows. I will go back to the RAW file and re-work it but I wanted some opinions. Thanks for the great input as usual!

[gail bisson]

Hi Nick,
Lovely colors in this image.
I agree with the above comments re: softness of the bird.
My biggest bugaboo about this image is the perch. I find the brown vertical vegetation distracting and the triangular shape of the "perch" drags the eye downward.
Gary says it is the nest. Is it? Because if that is the nest, then I would include all of it to show the viewer the story and make the bird "small in the frame"
Gail

[Nick Palmieri]

Yes Gail it is the nest

[John Cooper]

The composition works well Nick for this colourful Oriole - the eye is sharp but focus does fall off below the head. Another vote for including the nest as a whole to tell a story.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice shot. Great background, real nice perch, and great pose, and excellent comp, Nick.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Nick, I like how you have positioned the oriole in the frame, and lovely contrasting colours on him. The softness of the oriole mentioned in relation to the surrounding leaves mentioned, as your ss should have achieved a sharper subject.