Buried In Berries

[Julie Kenward]

I had to do a little cloning in PS to get the branches and berries away from the top of his head and the bottom of his tail but, other than that and a small crop, this is pretty much straight out of camera (SOOC).

Do you like that some of the branches are OOF or do they detract from the image? My focus this past autumn was to see if I could give more of a three-dimensional feel to some of my images. Does this one work in that regard? Do you feel like you're right there, looking up at the bird in the tree?

Comments and critiques please!

Canon 40D, 70-200 f/4L
f11 @ 1/125th, ISO 250
Manual mode, pattern metering, natural light
Processed in ACR & CS4; crop, brightness, cloning, sharpened

[denise ippolito]

Julie, the bird w/ the berries is a pretty shot-It does have a dimensional look.I like where you placed him in the frame

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Hi Julie,
I like the placement in the frame, I just found the foremost OOF branch a little distracting and the twigs coming out of the body. Otherwise I like what you are trying to do.

[Desmond Chan]

Do you like that some of the branches are OOF

Not a problem with me. That's how we see things with our eyes.

or do they detract from the image?

Not to me.

My focus this past autumn was to see if I could give more of a three-dimensional feel to some of my images. Does this one work in that regard?

Aaah...not exactly. I think another OOF one in the foreground would work better.

Do you feel like you're right there, looking up at the bird in the tree?

Not really. Perhaps a wide angle lens would do it better. I think usually teles compress everything and so don't give a better 3-dimensional feel to the resulting images as a wide-angle lens does.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Julie,
I like what you were trying to accomplish here. The capture angle is a bit steep. The main issue here is the thick oof branch in the foreground. the berries all around and touching the bird's body don't bother me that much. see if you can clone out that oof thick branch and see if it helps any. Then we will call the rest habitat...:) I know that the eyes filter out much of the out of focus elements and we only see what we want to and what our brain locks in to be in focus; its second nature to us, so we don't even think about the process that goes on when we see. The camera, however is a different . I know; have been there many a time.
Looking forward to your next capture...:):cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Sure like what you are trying to do but I'm struggling with the berries !!! Not sure what would I do? .... eating them is an option :)

[Nonda Surratt]

Nice habitat image, agree with Alfred on the berries and like the little bit of extra stick clean up Jackie did.