House Wren

[Gary Irwin]

Here's a simple shot of a House Wren taken at Rondeau Provincial Park (Ontario). Nothing special but I think I like the composition with the leaves framing the bird. This was taken in the shade and since I'm a natural light shooter I have to take the light as I get it.




Nikon D300+500VR hand held
1/160s f/4.0 at 500.0mm iso200 +2/3EC 60% crop

Thanks for looking!

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

I do think the leaves act as an effective frame. Your bird is fairly sharp, and well exposed. Good job handholding that rig, even with the VR. EFL of 750 makes that a challenge. I might have pushed up the ISO to 640 or more, to give you some more shutter speed flexibility. The D300 can easily handle that ISO, esp. in an image with a light background.

From a compositional standpoint, because the bird is looking to the right, you need less space to the left, and a bit more to the right if you have it. The other point would be the OOF branches in the back distract a little, esp. the one behind his head. You might blur it some more, and do the same to the RLC branch as well.

Thanks for sharing. I love seeing all the birds, not just the rare and exotic ones!

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

I think the way the leaves frame the wren the comp looks perfectly fine as is, even if it "breaks" the "more room in front rule" as they nicely fill in the right spots. A bit more room above would have prevented you from clipping the larger leaf above the head. I do agree with the OOF branches though...I really wish they were not there. Good point too about the ISO. Although this one is sharp I would raise it to put the odds more on your side for consistant sharpness. Lastly, I would experiment with the WB to make the image "warmer"...it's a little on the cool side as is. Beautiful little fellow that gave you a nice pose, and I love the spring feel to your image with the fresh leaves :-)

[Arthur Morris]

I love the sharpness and the soft light, everything but the o-o-f diagonal stem that merges with the back of the head. Would suggest a bit off both the top and the bottom.

[Gary Irwin]

Randy/Daniel/Arthur;

Thank you All kindly for taking the time to respond. I figured the OOF branch over the birds head was going to be an issue, but wanted to see how much. Since all of you noted it, I guess it really is a big deal! I'll spend a little time cleaning that up.

Randy; Interesting comment about the idea of shifting composition -- I hadn't considered the fact you don't need quite as much "front" room if the bird is looking the other way. I can see that now, and will look at recropping with that in mind. I think the bird is just sharp enough, but could be better -- since I don't care for tripods/flash I'll have to consider boosting the ISO to pick up the SS, even though I don't like the noise that often results even on my D300.

Daniel; Interesting comment about the warmth. I actually boosted the colour temp 10% for that one (I use Capture NX2). I do find Nikon images to be a tad "cool" in the shade. I'll try boosting it a tad more.


Based on that, here's version #2...