Yellow-bellied

[Ed Schneider]

I shot this male sapsucker from a backyard blind. The planted snag was loaded
with a peanut butter/suet mixture.... it's tough to get some shots in before the
birds get the stuff all over their beaks!

D300 + 500f/4

1/400th
f/5.6
-0.67 EV
ISO 500

I was concerned about the crop here, as this was originally horizontal. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Ed

[Colin Knight]

Ed, I like the verticle crop here.

Nicely done!

[Gal Shon]

Don't be concern about the crop, vertical fits here very well.
there's a bright stripe above the head which is a bit distracting.
A bit more DOF would be good. on my monitor it seems that the wing / breast is sharper.
I love the Comp, coloes, Exposure, pose and feet.

[Ed Schneider]

Thanks, Colin & Gal. I do see the OOF branch in the BG behind the head, guess I could fix that. The overcast light may be the culprit as far as the overall sharpness, with more light falling on the wing. I can't figure out why the red cap seems a little fuzzy.

Ed

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Beautiful image with lovely composition and BG. Excellent detail and exposure as well as superb eye contact. Many thanks for sharing Ed.

[Fabs Forns]

Beautiful light and colors, perfect focusing, great whites, what's not to like?

[Ed Schneider]

Thank you ladies, you're too kind;)

[Ted Willcox]

Very well exposed, lots of detail in the whites and blacks, very sharp. Neat species!! I would like to see a little less room on the top and right.
Ted

[Mark Adkins]

Vertical is definitely the way to go. Great color, composition, sharpness. The OOF branch over the head is distracting. The BG looks noisy to me. Did you use any noise reduction at ISO 500?

Mark

[RakeshDhareshwar]

The crop works beautifully well. But the focus seems on the shoulder . A bit more DOF /focus on the head would have been great !!

[Kiran Poonacha]

wow too loved the pose, details and the compo...