I was never keen on these type of images "cutting off limbs and wings" but I purposely shot this full frame to emphasize the head and neck. I realise being close, not everything would have fallen in the the DOF. This image may have changed my mind to shoot more of these type of images. Does this work? Taken in the Pilanesberg last weekend. The BG is water.
It works for me big time, I actually like close portraits that
show aspects and details of the birds that we cannot experience in the field.
By the way, when it comes to truth in photography and capturing "as it is"
I have hardly ever seen a successful image that captures nature exactly
the way we experience it by naked eyes, the camera IMO adds and changes,
and does not simply reproduce our experience of birds, nature or any other subject
for that matter.
Long story short, I like close-ups of birds like your image here.
You've got a perfect HA for the pose IMO.
The IQ is excellent and given the strong light this is really well captured.
I would only move the bird more to the right, add more space on the left.
I think there are some crop possibilities here,
more tight, vertical with the head and neck only etc.
I really enjoy this kind of photography as it shows great detail that you dont normally see. I have quite a few of these but never post them as its not everyones cup of tea...Nice one Stuart
Stuart, the comp definitely works well. No doubt about it. Like it a lot. But for me, the OOF near wing is not working. I am a big fan of shallow DOF but dont like when parts of bird in front of the in-focus head are OOF. Dont mind parts behind to be OOF that much. Lot of this is boils down to personal taste.
Stu, composition works well for me, sometimes you have no choice but to place the eye dead center. I would try and take a sliver off the right like this:
Not sure if it would be better though. Lovely light and detail.
Great detail in the head and neck. I might be tempted to crop even tighter and remove the wings totally. Crop just above the LHS wing as we view it and to the left of the RHS wing.
A wonderful image Stuart.
Colors, sharpness and details,pose, beautiful light and BG makes it for me on this superb image.
When I saw your OP Fabs Comp suggestion, is what I thought of.
Looks like it's about full frame Stuart. I only wish for a little space to the left, but that's not the be all end all. WEll done, excellent feather detail and sharpness where it counts!