I'm very much a "newbie" when it comes to photography, so any and all comments are welcome concerning the shot, camera setting, processing etc. My edited version is first and close to the original (Aperture 3's default D90 processing and cropped to 4:3 ratio) second.
Nikon D90, 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED @ 330mm
f/8, ISO 640, 1/2000, -0.67EV
Hi Paul. Your crop certainly improved the image. The background here really detracts from the image. It is busy and pulls the eye from your subject. f/8 was probably a bit to small an aperture for your subject. Lighting on the bird's wings and the catchlight in the eye look very good.
You did good to capture the bird in mid air that looks sharp and good feather details. Although I like environment in the shot but the background here does distract the viewer's eye away from the subject and the bird seem a bit flying away from you, a few seconds earlier would be good.
Paul, did you use flash for this? It would explain why the bird is so well exposed and the BG is so dark.
The head angle (HA) is just a tiny bit off. If you look very closely you can see that its a bit behind the focal plane of the camera. In the best case scenario, the HA will be dead even or turned towards us so we feel "eye contact" with the bird. I also think this could use some more detail in the feathers - sharpening might help but a slightly higher shutter speed and a wider aperture would have helped. It also helps to only shoot when the BG and lighting are on your side...position yourself properly and it will make a world of difference!
Keep the images coming...the more you post, the faster your learning curve! And be sure to comment on the other's photos as well. That's an excellent way to develop your "critical eye".
All: Thanks for the comments. This was an opportunistic photo, so I had little choice in how I shot it, but the comments I've been reading here have made me think a LOT more about proper background alignment when possible.
Julie: It was not taken with a flash, but I toned down the background and cropped out the most reflective branches per comments from others. I also toned down the reds so that the berries would fade, also per some very helpful comments. The fact that I got the bird in front of a hole in the vegetation was dumb luck. A few feet in either direction and it would have been in front of the masses of bright branches I cut out. So the background may not be perfect, but it beats everything to the left and to the right of the bird.
Immature Black-crowned Night-Heron
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