Cliff swallow, preening

[Dave Slaughter]

The head angle and eye contact police will get me on this, but I like the play of colors on the head.
canon 400d
sigma 170-500 lens at 500 mm with 20 mm extension tube
ISO 400
f8
1/250
Thanks for looking

[Alfred Forns]

Good for you Dave !!! I like you posting the image because you like it !!!

Do like the bg very much It is an appealing image !!! If you could only make the eye visible would be even more appealing. That is one part of the bird that you must have visible to make them work the best !!! Since the bird is doing a behavior the ha is not as much of a problem.

On preening birds we try having the head parallel to the film plane but in this case it would not be practical !!!!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Dave - love the BG.

It could be just be my monitor - but looks way to dark to me. Heres what loks about right on my screen as far as brightness goes. Also added a bit of CCW rotation.

:)

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Dave, good for you for posting an image because you like it!! I like it too and Lance's repost does look lighter.
Regards,
Nicki

[Gail Spitler]

I think that Lance's re-post is too light. The original image has the bird's colors pretty much spot on for me. Love the sharpness and definition in the feathers.

Al, could you talk a little bit about how to bring the eye out more?

Gail

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Dave, I like the feather detail on Lance's repost and "if only" the eye were more visible/enhanced somehow it would be in a different class. I surely understand about liking images that don't quite meet the criteria as I have several like that, too.

[Dave Slaughter]

Thanks for the comments and Lance, thanks for the repost. I usually print these on paper but only after you guys have had a chance to show me how to improve them.

[Arthur Morris]

One of the main problems here is a result of the improper light angle, well from the left side. This, the left side of the bird, esp. the head, is in shadow. For brightness, somewhere between the two would be ideal.

The biggest problem, however, is with the head angle. In ABP II and out of my mouth 100s of times: "99.9% of preening images need the head parallel to the imaging sensor and the eye visible to be successful."