This bird was close enough and, for a warbler, stayed in one spot long enough, to obtain a head and shoulders portrait. I still can't decide whether this is a keeper or not. My wife, who knows little about photography but who looks at wildlife magazines and Nat. Geographic etc., thinks it's OK.
D300, Tamron 200-500, hand-held, no flash. ISO 800, 1/160, f6.3. Any suggestions welcome (? use flash, faster shutter speed, different pp etc.).
Hi Richard,
I like the composition, but your colors are a bit too saturated, and over sharpened. You need to lighten up the eye area just a tad, its too dark. I do like the soft background and the placement of the bird in frame...:cool:
hard to get tack sharp photos handholding a 500mm (effective 750mm with the D300) with a SS of 1/160s!! rule of thumb is you need one over the mm which gets you to at least 1/800s. but you did pretty well!! you were fairly maxed out with the ISO so next thing is the tripod followed by the flash. both would help you obtain a much sharper photo and the flash would give you more detail in the darker face area. cant comment on the colors. never seen one!! but it sure is a beautiful bird!! thanks for sharing!!!
Hi Richard, I agree with most of the above comments. For me, this as a photograph is probably not a keeper, BUT, I love the "brush stroke" look of the plumage! I would definately keep this image and convert it to an "illustration" of some type. As an example of what I'm talking about, the repost was processed with an illustration action that you can download for free (google "Dave Seeram"). I also cropped some off the right. With PS CS3 and other available software, the skies the limit!!!!!!
Northern Parula portrait
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