Hooded Warbler - and adjusting the background

[Paul Kammen]

A hooded warbler from last week near Key West. Thanks for any feedback. Not sure if I should try to photoshop the background; I don't think it ruins the image even though it's not a deep blue sky - was just happy to see the hooded actually. They nest near me in Minnesota, but it was nice to see one during migration.

1/1000 sec, ISO 200, f9, aperture priority, center-weighted average metering. 800mm, 7DII.

[Dorian Anderson]

Such a pretty bird, but he's way too tight in the frame. Loosening the crop will improve the composition and help mitigate the noise issues.

[John Mack]

Agree about the crop. The image has quite a lot of noise. Could be from the large crop or a big under exposure. I saw some of my first warbler's for this year today.

[gail bisson]

This is a great warbler to image.
Lots of issues here:
1. The noise is significant. Did you underexpose this significantly?
2. I agree with Dorian that the image is too tight in the frame and the crop should be loosened significantly.
3. The branch intersecting the tail is unfortunate and with this tight crop, tends to overwhelm the bird.
4. The BG is not an issue for me.
Gail

[Paul Kammen]

He was in the shadows, so I had to bring up the shadow and exposure in RAW. Here's another one where he was in a bit more light..