Blackcollared Barbet Portrait

[Stu Bowie]

Taken a while back in a friends garden around a feeder.

Nikon D50
70-300 @ 300mm
1/800
F/8
ISO 400

Exp Comp -0.33
Hand Held

[Doug Brown]

I like the eye-level view. You held the reds nicely. The image looks sharp but perhaps a little oversharpened. I like the smooth BG, but it looks like a bit of plumage up top has been blurred. Thanks for posting Stuart!

[Mark Dumbleton]

Like it too Stu! Like the colours and BG. Did you blur the BG tho? Can see traces of blurring (or perhaps heavy noise reduction) around the edge of the bird.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the eye contact, details and find the shape of the beak very interesting. A more uniform BG would have made it even better.

[Morkel Erasmus]

great close-up Stu! agree with Mark re the little halo around the edge. plumage detail is exquisite!

[Ramon M. Casares]

I agree about the oversharpened look and the soomth edges of the bird, but I guess that is just PP work that can easily be fixed. Fill lfash would've helped getting more detail in the blacks, but overall I like it very much, BG looks good, comp, detail and colors too.
Congratulations!

[Dave Barnes]

Not too sure about the framing/comp Stu. A bit too much space on the right for me?

[Kobus Tollig]

Ditto all Mark said and also dave on the comp. Still nice portrait well done

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the positive crits. Much appreciated.