Blue Jay

[Joel Eade]

One of my images from last summer in the backyard using a feeder and hide. Usual processing with ACR and CS4. Nothing cloned out or added.

40D
300mm 2.8L
1.4X TC
1/250 sec.
f/5.6
ISO 320
Metering : partial

Thanks for looking, all critiques welcomed.

[Dave Blinder]

Joel - Love the slightly fanned tail, not a typical sight on a Blue Jay, nice bg and perch. Fine detail on shoulder feathers seems muted. If this is a full frame shot, perhaps more DOF is warranted? Could also be a slight loss of detail from the jpg conversion. I'd probably clone out the small stem hanging down on the left side, as it doesn't add to the image.

- Dave

[denise ippolito]

Joel, I like the slightly fanned tail and the pose. The bird seems a bit centered in the composition and taking a bit from the left might help. I think the light in the eye looks a bit bright. Very nice dark green BG to make your bird stand out.

[Joel Eade]

Is this a little better? I was kind of hesitant to crop the left 'cause I liked that part of the perch.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Denise beat me to it. I can only echo her comments. A crop off the left would make a big difference.

[paul leverington]

The only thing I have to add is that the eye highlight being as bright as it is rather hides the eye--especially in the original. I actually favor the first version for it's better balance, but you could go with the second version if you'd be willing to add canvas back to the left. It's ever so tight on top--just a little. A great looking beautiful bird those bluejays. Mean as heck but gorgeous.

Paul

[subramanya_ck]

Wonderful image. Re-post is awesome