Picnic Time

[Frank McKernan]

Long Billed Corella taken this morning from the back of our place. The birds were in a neighbours pine about 4 houses away.
Nikon d3200
Lense Tamron 150-600 at 600
f/6.3
ss 1/1600- ISO 400
Hand held.
Slight adjustment to whites right, blacks left. clarity and curves. crop then unsharp mask.
All comments welcome.
Cheers Frank.

[Jack Dean III]

This is a neat group image Frank. I like how it shows that each individual may have something different on its mind. I am new to CC but I will give it a shot. If it were my image I would try to get some more detail in the background and maybe center the tree up and make the negative space equal on each side. I look forward to seeing more of your post.

[Frank McKernan]

Thanks for your response Jack. I am keen to see what you do with it. As to putting the tree in the centre we are always to not to centre things but I am open to all ideas. I took lots of shots of these birds and I have one that I believe is much better?I will start a new post with it at some stage.
Cheers Frank

[Diane Miller]

There are times when centering works. Avoiding it is not something you should have been told to adhere to in all cases. When a subject is off-center there is usually a visual need for some balancing element, even if it is a softly out of focus part of the background. An exception would be an image that is almost an abstract, such as a round flower floating on a dark background.

Here you have a plain background, which makes centering more justified. The lean in the tree also suggests to a viewer possibly a camera that was not held level. Even if the tree was leaning, I would shoot a scene like this with the tree more vertical, just to save the viewer wondering. It's analogous to the desirability of leveling a horizon in some cases where it may not have been, the the reason it wasn't is not obvious in the picture.

A more major issue here is the crop -- cropping about halfway between the bottom the birds will give more emphasis to the remaining ones. The bottom bird looking out of the frame, and the branch just being cut off, is not adding much. But a more major issue is that none of the birds has a good head angle, making eye contact with the viewer. With so many of them scattered across the image, we want at least one to be a center of attention.

[Frank McKernan]

Thanks Diane,
I have noted all the polnts you have made and i will look through the other pics i have taken. It seems like there are no positves in this one.
Cheers Frank.

[Diane Miller]

There is always the positive of your enjoyment of an image or that it has some special meaning to you. Comments here are mostly directed at how an image fares out in the world -- a much higher bar.

[Jim Keener]

What a unique photograph. And such a good eye on your part to see it. Four houses away!

I sent in a photograph for evaluation for a composition class and was very upset to learn the instructor didn't like my "rule of thirds" treatment, that he thought the subject should have been centered. Only thing, he was right. Learning isn't always easy for me. One of the things I'm learning is that the process is essential here. No matter the quality of the original image I post, it's the steps I take, with critiques, to make it better. My eye is much more discerning now than it was just a month ago. Because going through these exercises, slowly for me, reinforces a better eye, and a more complete look at what I'm doing.

I think this image is fun. Some things that might make it "pop" are centering and more contrast. At least that's from my present perspective. I wish I had been there to see those birds, too.

[Jess M. McKenzie]

Wow! They DO have long bills. I can see that on the 3rd down--right. Nice composition.
thanks...