Another Dark Eyed Junco

[Dave Leroy]

Another male I believe taken in my garden on a stick with cedar hedge as bg. 50D, 500mmIS f/4 at f/4, 1/60, ISO800. Dave

[Connie Mier]

I like the angle of the shot, and a nice clean bg to go with it. The bird does seem a bit soft (shutter speed maybe?)

[Doug Brown]

Hi Dave. If you're going to use shallow DOF, it's critical to nail the eye, and I think you've done a pretty good job of that here. I would sharpen the feathers around the eye to give a better sense of sharpness to the bird, and might decrease brightness/ boost contrast in the bird. I would also place the bird higher in the frame. Kind of like this (I didn't recrop, but did everything else I described).

[Dave Leroy]

Thanks a ton Doug. I realy appreciate your effort. I had thought I was pretty close on the eye and yet Connie made a very good comment about the sharpness. Mid afternoon and heavy west coast overcast days are here, so there is not a lot of shutter speed or dof to work with without flash.
And thanks to you Connie for looking and commenting. It was the angle of the shot that attracted me to it also.
Dave

[Harshad Barve]

interesting angle and super BG , Doug's repost looks better
TFS