Gray Catbird

[Eric Patdu]

Got this photo when I brought my kids to Camden Aquarium.

C&C is very much welcome.

Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) L 22cm
Shooting Info: NJ, USA, May 19, 2010, Canon XSi + EF-S 55-250mm f4-5.6 IS, 235mm, f/5.6, 1/50 sec, ISO 800, +0.33 exposure compensation, 3.4m, hand held

[Maureen Allen]

This is a lovely image and an interesting bird.

Just a few observations: I think your bird may be a little large in the frame. Also, I'd consider trying to blur the background a bit if you can, because it seems distracting with all those vertical lines. These birds have a wonderful orange area on the upper part of the underside of their tails which shows just slightly in your photo. I wonder if you might be able to lighten that shadowed area somewhat so it would show this better. It seems like you were shooting in some fairly low light. It may have been worth trying to up the ISO so you could stop down a bit and try to get more of the bird in focus.

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks Maureen! Yeah, I think I cropped too tight thus making the bird too big for the frame. The vertical lines at the back are sort of a bamboo fence. I tried your advise of blurring the BG but the result wasn't good. I guess I still have to learn how to blur the BG properly.

This bird was in the shade lurking under a bush so the light was not good but I was happy to be able to get enough details. I guess the DOF was fairly shallow on this one. I usually shoot in AV with Auto ISO. With my camera, I believe the highest useable ISO is 800 because above that, the noise becomes intolerable.

Again thanks for the comment!

[Arthur Morris]

Nice bird, good job with EXP and detail, relatively sharp. The bamboo fence is a less than ideal BKGR :)

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks Mr. Morris. I agree 100% on the background. I guess I'm still in the stage where I just shoot and not consider the overall composition of the image. :) I really have to learn that.

[Arthur Morris]

Yes, as we get more experienced we begin to see that the BKGRs can be more important than the birds :)

[Julie Kenward]

Agree with the comments here, Eric. I do think the BG would be less offensive if you could clone out the middle horizontal bar leaving it all vertical instead of being cut in half.

[Eric Patdu]

Thanks Julie! Will try to learn the clone tool and experiment on removing the black line at the back. :)