Hello,
I have read many topics here today, and read many interesting things.
I would like to show you this picture of a Blue tit coming to the feeder, at home.
I generally feel uncertain about white balance, especially on cloudy days. Sometimes it feels too yellow or too cold, sometimes it feels good...
I have cropped a bit, but the second image doesn't show the whole original pic, I don't know how to do it well (I took a screenshot from Lightroom).
I use a small aperture because I'm afraid not to have enough of the bird in focus, is that a good idea?
Hello and welcome Sam! This is certainly the place to come for good photography overload! My poor head hurts with all the info it's trying to digest.
What a cute little bird showing off his habitat. Sam, this is all subjective and this is my POV. I am no professional. WB - I always leave it on auto. Cropping and showing the crop like you have done really helps anyone to critique better. Well done! If this image were mine, I would move the crop more to the right and possibly right to the bottom of the frame. and come down from the top and in on the LHS. I think this would give a lovely sweep of branch.
When I shot birds, I always have the aperture at it's widest, and try to focus on the eye. Have a look at the Avian demi-gods' techs. If the sharpness falls away to the tail, it seems to be the excepted thing. Keep the eye as sharp as possible.
I would consider cloning out some of those smaller, OOF twigs. It makes for a busy BG. If your birds are coming down to a feeder, find a spot to set up a nice perch that they may settle on before they get to the feeder. Have a look at Jess's saga.
I am unable to comment on the birds colour, but he does look a little washed out.
Thank you for sharing Sam. I look forward to seeing some more!
Hello, Samuel. Excellent first post, first thread. When I first saw your photograph, I thought of the same details Glennie wrote about. And I probably learned that much from her! One comment on post processing: perhaps move the shadows slider to the right in LR to lighten up some of the bird and a lot of the BG. What Glennie writes about aperture is especially important with this kind of image: where the BG is busy and close to the bird. A tighter aperture would help minimize the busyness and pull the bird away from the BG.
I'm eager to see more of your work. And, as Glennie wrote, welcome.
Good advice above. BG is busy, but natural. As you get more advanced you'll seek more classical beauty with more distant (thus OOF) BGs. If you can get closer to a bird, the BG will be relatively more distant and thus softer.
Main critique here is that the bird is not sharp. Handholding at a slow SS will soften an image to look OOF. ISO 1600 will also cause softness from noise. Getting closer (or the equivalent with a longer lens) is the key to a good shot, and if you must crop, use a very sturdy tripod and practice the best technique.
Read all the posts here and glean what will work for you.
I will try to use the largest possible aperture from now, see where it leads me. In this case, I guess I could have used a greater shutter speed, to get a sharper bird.
Glennie, I don't understand your cropping suggestion. Where do you want to put the bird? What do you mean by "a lovely sweep of branches"? (LHS = left-hand side?)
When you talk about cloning out small branches, can it be done in Lightroom, or are you thinking about something more advanced? Which twigs would you take out?
You can't clone in LR. The spot removal tool is very nice and can remove an elongated area with a clear surrounding, but always needs watching and sometimes manual intervention for best results. For sophisticated cloning you need Photoshop.
Blue tit at the feeder
