Cedar Waxwing

[Sean McMahon]

I learned from weeding through a series of shots I took of these recently invading waxwings at a local pond that the best angle on them is from the back, where you get their beautiful spots of color, but with the head turned to see their great face and crest.

I was fortunate to get this pose, and lucky(?) that I work 9-5 and was forced to wait until this nice warm setting sunlight lit the scene.

Thoughts?

I wish the full bird was in focus. Especially the tail. Smaller aperture might have helped.

And I wish he was lower. He's at too high-up of an angle.

But I like the young buds around him, and the blue sky background. Maybe a little too chaotic with buds in and out of focus all around!

I'm getting more paranoid about my monitor brightness and comments about exposure from folks who have calibrated monitors are particulary appreciated. :)

Happy shooting,
Sean McMahon
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Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
Lens: Canon 75-300mm f/5.6
Handheld
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/320)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Sean,
Very nice capture and composition, I like the colors on your subject, good head angle and nice habitat...:D

[Fabs Forns]

Exposure looks good on this calibrated monitor. You di have mixed light, sun and shade, and that is a problem. Smaller aperture would not have solved the tail and you'd have a more focused background, sure you wouldn't want that. Sharp around the eye and as you mention, sweet light, except for the shaded areas.
Try to get the bird more in the open?

[John Chardine]

I like the environment in this one- a nice sign of spring! I'm not a fan of images from below birds but this one is close to being OK. On my monitor there is an overall wash and I can see some noise in the eye, wingtips and other places. I think this has result from too much brightening of the image with Levels or whatever tool you use. I tried cutting back on midtones in Ps and it looked better. Also tried USM at 20/20/0 which worked well. Interestingly, just pasting the image into Ps resulted in an improvement- less washed out and more contrast. I keep mentioning this but I see the same problem with some images posting to BPN- they look OK on my computer but once posted, they are lighter and washed out.

[Doug Brown]

I keep mentioning this but I see the same problem with some images posting to BPN- they look OK on my computer but once posted, they are lighter and washed out.

Just wondering what color space you are working in John? My stuff looks exactly the same when I post. Likewise when I do a repost of someone else's photo, the BPN version is true to the original.