Carolina Wren - Does this Composition work?

[David Kenny]

One from yesterday. I just wanted to get some input on this composition and bird position. I am not sure if this works or not. The background is the snow (which we have gotten too much of this year). Adjusted the black slider in LR and the white balance as well. No sharpening, noise reduction or cropping. Taken with the 7D and the 100-400mm @ 360mm on tripod from the blind in the backyard.

ISO 400
F 5.6
1/500
Manual exposure

Thank you.

[Randall Farhy]

Hi David-It's not bad for the unusual subject position. I'd try to make better use of the negative space by altering the position of the perch within the frame (rotation/ creative crop). I don't know how much room the original file has, this is about the best I could come up for the presented file though it is a bit tight. I'd have preferred to keep all of the original branch, it got chopped when I spun the image in the crop tool. I feel flipping it on the horizontal helps direct the viewer to the bird rather than where the bird is looking. Clean, high key background images such as this lend themselves well to alternative processing techniques.

[David Kenny]

Thanks Randall. What do you think about the pose of the bird itself?

[Marina Scarr]

I am really liking the composition in the original post (OP). While it is a big unconventional, it's quite strong b/c it's unique. I love the high key effect of that white BG. The only issue I see here is that your bird could use a little more sharpening. You were shooting with a 100-400. Assuming you were @ 400mm, you needed to use maybe F7.1 or 8 to get more DOF and details. I think you could use a little more sharpening and it will do the trick here. It's nice to see you posting something different.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi David,
I like the OP better. The only thing I'm seeing there is a bit of vignetting on the right/upper right and on my monitor, the BG looks a bit pink. I think the pose is wonderful and unique! Being a tiny bird, it might even be good to have a bit more space around? Very nice capture! (I, too, feel your pain about too much snow!)

[David Kenny]

Marina - I would of preferred f8 on this one as well. I got really excited when this guy showed up and forgot to change it and zoomed in a little too much. One thing I have learned is that I need to shoot f8 when I zoomed to over 350mm from the blind.

Sandy- I am not sure about the pinks I do not see them on my monitor, as far as the vignette in the upper right it is actually a out of focus group of saplings which were sticking out of the snow. I did not even see that. I can fix that in LR.

Thank you for the input.

[Diane Miller]

Interesting and different -- I like it!

[Randall Farhy]

I too like the pose, not only because it's unconventional, but because it also provides a behavioral aspect in a way that traditional captures usually can't. It's definitely a keeper.

[Iain Barker]

I Like this image and think the different composition works. I don't see the pink in the background Sandy mentions but I do think the log and bird have a very slight pink colour and wonder if there is a slight colour cast? I am not familiar with this species of Wren and am not on a calibrated monitor though so it could be the correct colour.

[Tim Harding]

Sometimes the most interesting colours/patterns of a bird are on it's back, so a view like this is not unwelcome, as long as you can get some eye in there.

[Hazel Grant]

I know that the rule of thumb is "go for the eye" but in this case, I think the unique pose trumps that. I like it.

[Richard Stern]

The OP is effective for me, and suggests the behaviour of the bird nicely. I agree that a less tight crop, if possible, would be nice.

Richard