Keeping a lot of feed in the yard for these. Better numbers of them this year.
Self critique. A little better head turn for eye contact; could be a little better detail in black areas; colours are good but there could be a little more dynamic in the contrast.
EXIF
Camera: Canon 30D
Lense: Canon EF 500 IS L @ f 4.0
Metering: partial
Mode: all manual
Exposure: 1/640 @ f 6.3: fill flash 1/4 power, better beamer extender
ISO: 400
White bal.: custom - 5450
I like the angle, BG and unusual setting and only wish for a bit more eye contact. You could try to raise the contrast a bit and maybe some more sharpening, too.
Mark, I agree with Axel's comments. I also find the hot spots on the top of the rocks to be a little distracting. You might use the clone tool or levels to bring those down a bit so they aren't so hot.
It's too bad you didn't get a better head angle...there's so much texture and pattern going on between the bird and the rocks...this is really an interesting image.
Mark,
Rather than cloning the hot spots, try burning them in. Using the dodge and burn tool is a chemical dark room technique that I personally prefer.
This is a beautiful bird! I too feel eye contact between subject and viewer would make this an even stronger image.
All good comments above. I only wish that he were on the higher prettier rock. I kinda like the head position but am not a fan of sidelight (with the hot strip of breast...)
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Agree with the above critiques - regarding sharpening I think a little more may be good but not on the pale spots on the nape which already look a little oversharpened to my eye.
I'm also a fan of the burn/dodge tools...would work perfectly here for those "hot" spots. The rest your your self-critique are bang on. Just a question: When you critique yourself do you go back and revisit your images to tweak them (I'm talking about the post-processing of course - not the head turn)
California Quail (male)
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