Does this composition work?

[Eric Patdu]

Saw this Carolina Wren in our backyard but this is the only acceptable photo I got. Would like to know your opinion on whether this composition works for you.

C&C on other aspects are also very much welcome.


Carolina Wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) L 5.5" (14cm)
Shooting Info: September 28, 2010, Canon XSi + EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS, 250mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO 800, 3.7m, hand held

[Albert Rizzo]

Personally, I like it since it shows the subject in a very natural setting while showing enough of its identifying features.
You might want to try boosting colour saturation and contrast a bit to counter the effects of ISO 800.

[Julie Kenward]

Eric, I also agree that this works because of the nice HA and pose. I do think you have way too much surroundings in the image - they really overpower the bird IMO. I'd go vertical with this and cut the right side off. I'd also readjust the greens to be less blue/more yellow and tone down the brightly colored branches that seem to jump out for our attention. I think if you made these changes you'd have a much stronger image on your hands.

[Indranil Sircar]

I like it too. You got nice exposure on the bird. Agree with Julie on the crop suggestion and readjusting the color cast of the green. Very nice and TFS.

[Dawn Currie]

I too like the bird in its habitat. I decided to try some of the suggestions in the previous posts. This version is cropped so his eye falls right on the cross hairs of the ROT grid. I also applied Photo Filter Warming 81 to get rid of the blue cast, and burn tool to control the highlight on the bright v-shaped branch area. When I did the cropping, I made sure to include some green to the right of these branches to stop the eye from leaving your image.

[Eric Patdu]

Thank you everyone for the valuable inputs. I decided to post this because I mostly see photos of the whole bird and was wondering what the other photographers think about a partially hidden subject.

I also never thought of cropping this vertically but upon seeing the editing done by Dawn, I agree 100% that the new composition makes the viewer focus more on the bird than on the distracting background.

Regarding the bluish cast, I guess I would have to either train my eyes (as I didn't notice it) or I need to calibrate my monitor. :)

Thank you again and I will try to learn how to do the post-processing adjustments all of you have suggested.

[Arthur Morris]

Good job of focusing through the leaves. I actually prefer the original wider view :) There is a good thread in the ER on attracting birds with tapes. This species sometimes responds well. There does not seem to be a green cast on the bird....

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks for the tip Mr. Morris. I have yet to discover the hidden treasures found in this forum.

[Arthur Morris]

YAW. The ER is a great place to start. It would be easy to spend a lifetime here. Heck, that is what I am doing :)

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hey Eric, a little getting to this one, but I agree with the above comments. I think you did quite well with this one. It is always nice to see photographs of birds in their surrounding habitat.

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks Andrew! I also kinda like the image because it is like a birdwatcher's point of view. I was just not sure if this is appealing from a photographer's point of view. :)