Cedar waxwing

[Dave Weller]

A cedar waxwing, I am hoping to get a critique on this shot, I adopted some of the advice given from my last post.


Camera Canon EOS 7D
lens sigma 150-500
Aperture F9
exposure 1/640
Bias +0.33
ISO 500
focal length 500mm

[Bob Miller]

HI Dave...nice shot here...If it were mine I would crop some from the left side and from the top to bring more attention to your subject.You might also consider toning down the RHC and sharpening the bird...looks a bit soft. Light is a bit harsh and so next time you look for an overcast but bright day. Looking forward to your next post!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Dave Good looking bird and always a treat to capture !!!

Good suggestions by Bob Ideally you want the bird larger in frame so more focal length ... if you were at the max then would try having a small bird in frame positioned closer to one of the corners, in this case UR or LR depending on what else would be showing up in the frame.

Exposure wise its a little over but can help things by lowering the red/yellow temp for more detail in the breast are !! Also would shoot wide open to minimize the bg and try zeroing on the eye .. hope you had the lens on a tripod !! ... effective focal length was 800 (zoomed out)

[Lance Peters]

Hi Dave - agree with the advice above - make sure you have your over exposure blinkies turned on in camera and make use of your histogram.
Looking forward to seeing more :)

[arash_hazeghi]

good advice given above, critical focus point is on the red berries and not on the bird, makes a big difference!

[Dave Weller]

Thank you all for your input and advice, I agree that it is a little over exposed, I still haven't got it down on judging the correct exposure, I generally find (and I am only just learning) that I do need to overexpose a little when shooting into bushes and trees, in this case I may have been better not to.
I checked the focal points and I did miss critical focus on this on I nailed him in the middle of the chest, I have to learn more about the histogram functions. BTW this was a handheld shot. Overall personally I do like this one, I still have the raw file, I may with time try to rework this one.