Peaceful Dove - Cairns, Australia

[Tony Whitehead]

These little (20cm) doves are really sweet but hard to catch nicely as they are in constant movement. I would have preferred more DOF but it was after sunset and I wanted the ambient light so needed a relatively fast shutter speed to try and freeze the movement - close working distance limited DOF even more
Nikon D300
Nikon 70-200 2.8 @180
1/200s @f3.2
ISO 800 - matrix - fill flash -1.0

[Doug Brown]

I don't think more DOF would have helped in this circumstance; you would have gained DOF at the expense of more motion blur. It's a pretty good photo with a nice low angle. I think the head could stand a little more selective sharpening. Thanks for posting!

[Ramon M. Casares]

You said it about the DOF bit in stead of more of that I would've prefered a 100% side view, still, the color and BG are very nice, these little doves are not easy at all, I know it! Congratulations!

[Dave Phillips]

some beautiful colors harmonizing here....agree with all above.

How did you load a file 1024 px wide, when max is 800 px and anything above that gets rejected?

[Tony Whitehead]

Hi Dave, 800px is the vertical limit, 1024px is the horizontal limit

[Simon Bennett]

Lovely tones in background and bird - would have been nice to have the extra dof you hoped for.

[Raymond Barlow]

nice image Tony., too much of the image is soft imo, but sharp where it counts.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Beautiful dove and lovely low angle. I hear what you a say about the ambient light - I would have opted for a more radical approach e.g. ISO 2000 to get the shutter speed and perhaps more depth of field e.g. f5.6 and then dealt with the noise afterwards in PS. Great shot nonetheless. Looking forward to meet you next month:)

[Doug Campbell]

Neat bird. Looks like you crossed an Inca dove with a parakeet!

[Linda Robbins]

What a beautiful dove.! Lovely pastel colors and the low perspective is very nice. I do wish for more depth of field and less motion blur in this image, but you did get the face sharp.

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Linda

[Juan Aragonés]

I agree about the DOF and I would prefer to see a better head turn but love the soft light and pastel colors of the image. I suggest a round of noise reduction to the BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely, lovely bird and a nice image. I am fine with the sharpness on the eye but nobody has mentioned that the bird's head is turned slightly away from both you and the plane of the bird's body... Love teh light, the BKGR, and the killer-blue eye-ring and lores.