I am sorry I don't have the EXIF for this image ... had a major senior's moment with this one - edited it right off my card and like an idiot, I didn't save the images on that card before I formatted it.
Hi Sue and welcome to BPN! Although this post belongs in another forum with Hand of Man elements (this forum is only for Wild and Free), just a couple of observations. Nicely posed house finch, good head angle and exposure. Overall, the image composition is too cluttered for my taste, too many competing elements. A tighter crop might be better if it isn't pixellated. Look at the other posts on this forum for some ideas. But keep posting!
Hi Sue, I tend to agree with Keith, a lot of elements in the picture that take the eye away from the subject. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn't. The bird detail seems a bit weak and underexposed too, but I do light the bg. Thanks for posting.
The Hand of Man forum that Keith mentioned has been rolled into this one. I just saw a new post about that. We're all getting used to some new formatting the BPN folks have done. This is the right place for your post, or, you can also post in the Eager To Learn forum if you're really not sure....
I like this image - I like the colors of the apple and the bird. The bird does seem to be secondary to the fruit, though, because the fruit is so much more vivid. You could try increasing the saturation and sharpening the bird....
I'm interested to see what others' recommendations are.
Welcome to BPN Sue! You've gotten some excellent suggestions already from our forum members. The perch definitely draws the eye away from a beautiful bird. I would crop away some of the perch to emphasize the bird. I would also try to use natural perches instead of wires when doing bird photography. Thanks for posting!
Sue - Following Doug's suggestion for a crop, I took a crack at it, don't know if you'll like this or not. First used PS to enlarge your image to 800 px width, then cropped to 800 x 600. Cloned/healed/patched out part of the iron hanger, selected bird, inversed, then reduced noise in BG, then inversed again, sharpened bird USM 125 / 0.5 / 0. The bird was fairly soft to begin with, so sharpening doesn't completely rescue that. See what you think ... Keith
Hi Sue, Welcome and sorry to be late to the party. I moved your thread to Eager to Learn as you will receive more help here. A wire perch is less than ideal but it is the twisted out-of-focus wire between you and your subject that pretty much destroys the image from a visual and aesthetic standpoint Best to erect a simple branch perch near your apple or seed and wait for the bird to land on it.
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Hi Sue,
Welcome to the BPN family...you have recieved very good advise. Here you will learn and grow and become the photographer you want to be...:) Looking forward to your next composition...:cool:
I was a little ahead of you with the desat and the crop. I try not to crop as I never know when those missing pixels will come in handy ;)
Here is my desat ...
And here's my crop - although I didn't think to mess with the wire...
I don't have the best of equipment - but at the time it was the best I could afford. Four years ago I sold my soul for a D70 body and kit lens (18-70mm), then added a 105mm macro, a 70-300mm telephoto, a 50mm for portraits and low light and a 2x tc. About two months ago I was offered an almost new 28-300mm telephoto/macro for $25, so called that my Christmas present. I am unemployed (downturn in the economy) and really struggling to keep my head afloat here. My photography and the wild birds keeps me sane.
Most of my zoom lenses for some reason are refusing to settle on a sharp focus - will zoom, then go right past the in focus point, and way out to the other extreme. I was really fighting with them to get any shots, and we all know how long a bird will sit still!
Yesterday my Nikon refused to focus at all, so I am madly scouring "The Words" for a reason for that!
My back-up camera is a KM DiMage Z5. Has a 12x zoom, which is nice, but its just a P&S and won't shoot RAW, which I want. However, it is what it is and there's no likelihood of improving or repairing the Nikon when I am currently fighting to keep my roof over my head here.
Does anyone know of a good free noise removing program? I was using one that wasn't bad, but its free time ran out ... what I'd really like is something I can run from within PS7 ... an action or a filter??
Thank you for the suggestions - the idea of adding a branch or twig near the feeders is a good one. If it ever warms up here, I will for sure do that. I don't go out into the bush by myself any more - although at one time I lived in the wilderness (and I do mean deep wilderness) but my gear was really inferior then so the images from that little episode in my life have nothing even remotely worth posting here. Then, in 2003, I lost everything in a house fire (no insurance out in the bush), so had to start reinventing life all over again.
I have 300,000+ images on my computer - I promise I won't post them all here! But is it possible I just plain wore out the NIkon??? There's about 70,000+ on its counter.
Thanks for taking the time to respond to this thread. I really do appreciate it and I can see I have a lot of learning to do. Hope the Z5 is up to it!!!
Cheers,
Sue
Last edited by Sue Thomson; 01-03-2009 at 01:36 PM.
My First Post - House Finch
