Black Kite

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Exposure	0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture	f/4.0
Focal Length	500 mm
ISO Speed	400
Exposure Bias	+1/3 EV

[Bob Miller]

Hi Sanjeev...An interesting bird to be sure and i like the fresh green bg.The perch seems to be sharper than your subject. The bg is way too busy and needs to be simplified perhaps by moving your position. the limbs crossing through the subjects head and the bright limb to the left are very distracting. AS is ...I would crop just a bit from the top and clone out the white hot spots. Hope to see more of your work

[Jeannean Ryman]

I've never seen a black Kite, so appreciate you posting. I agree with Bob. I know we can't always get the background we'd like, but all those bright spots and large limbs are distracting. Looking at your specs, fill flash for the subject might have worked better than the increase in exposure bias.

[Kerry Perkins]

Sanjeev, to take your photography to the next level you need to take control of your shooting conditions. While it is true that you couldn't control the background in this shot, you can make the decision to shoot against uncluttered backgrounds instead. At the very least, move to your left and right while observing the background in your viewfinder until you have a clean edge all around your bird. Branches and other foliage intersecting the subject really weaken the impact of an image.

Technically, there are a couple of issues. There is a strong red cast to the mid tones, which you can see in the bird and in the tree. Leaving space on the left or right of a subject is much less of a goal with vertical crops, and in this image I don't think the space on the left is doing anything for the composition. You could crop away most of the distracting branches on the left and the large one at the top of frame and have a better comp.

[Marina Scarr]

Good advice from Kerry. I was on a juvie hawk recently. I must preface by saying that he was very accommodating but I must have tried to photograph it from about 20 different positions, always scanning the BG in my viewfinder looking for the less cluttered BG with these least amount of specular highlights, etc. In this case, looking at your BG, I am not sure it was possible. That said however, you do have a few crop choices which will eliminate some of the clutter and enhance your image.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thank you all, I will keep looking for a cleaner BG next time I shoot. I appreciate all your comments and suggestions on BG, composition & framing. Regards
Sanjeev