My new Toys

[Kobus Tollig]

At last i got a flash and i got myself the canon 50D

Canon 50D
100-400mm @ 365mm
1/250 sec, f/7.1
Mode: Av
Metering: Evaluative
ISO: 400
AF mode: One-shot AF
Drive: Continuous (high): frame 1
White balance: Auto
Flash: External E-TTL
Flash exp comp: +1/3
Taken just outside Pretoria
Ant Eating Chat
All C&C welcome and appreciated

[Randy Stout]

Kobus:

Congrats on the new toys. Always exciting to try them out.

I like your bird, nicely exposed, like the feet,good HA.
I might consider sharpening the eye selectively, and perhaps a bit more room, esp on the top, because of his gaze direction, bit more on bottom for feet. For me, doesn't need quite so much room to the right, but that is just a personal choice.

Cheers

Randy

PS: You could consider removing the flash highlight, but it is so small, doesn't bother me.

[Paul Wolf]

Kobus:
Very, very nice flash control! The exposure seems perfect to me. Really like the eye contact and great sharpness and detail throughout. The background compliments the bird very nicely and helps to bring out the bits of blue. Great job, especially with new equipment. Congratulations, by the way!

Paul

[Tony Whitehead]

Good job, Kobus. Randy has covered the main points well. There is also the option of removing the OOF twigs behind the perch if so inclined. Next step is a BB if you don't have one :)

[Ramon M. Casares]

This one would've worked better as a vertical, not by crop but from the moment of the shot, still, great light, wonderfull, pose, nice perch, BG and detail, I agree with the comments avobe. Congratulations!

[Gyorgy Szimuly]

Agree with Ramón in getting a stronger image with a vertical crop.
Lovely colors and lights on it. Bg's noise looks a bit over reduced (or maybe too much Gaussian Blur on it?).

Szimi

[Steve Maxson]

A very nice image, Kobus, and the main points have been covered above. My comment has to do with the eye. If this was mine, I would remove the flash-generated catchlight (you already have a natural catchlight and the flash-generated one just looks artificial to me :) ). Next, I would make a selection of the eye and add black to the pupil. This would get rid of the slightly glassy look of the eye and also increase the apparent sharpness.

[Stu Bowie]

Hey Kobus, congrats on your new toys. Super pose from the chat, and great flashwork. I feel a vertical crop would work better.

[Dave Barnes]

Nice shot Kobus. I wish you the best with your new toys.

[Kobus Tollig]

Thx all for the comments and crits. I guess I was a bit lazy here. Maybe to exited about the toys that I forgot the skills hehehe.

[Morkel Erasmus]

congrats on the stuff :)
like the pose, sharpness and exposure. flash reflection in the eye not a nit for me - agree on maybe vertical crop (you can't take the shot over so that'll have to do).

love the wind-blown effect. you're a brave man to attempt photos this week in Pretoria with the way the weather was behaving...see you tomorrow...