That is one great photo of the Verdin. I have had lots of practise trying to take their photo away from a feeder. They love to hang on a humming bird feeder. You have good color, clarity and composition along with a nice catch light in the eye. Twigs on right bottom side of bird could easily removed with Content Aware using CS5, But I love the photo as taken.
You did well taking such a great shot of a very flighty bird. I wish it was mine,
Thanks Gus for the feedback. I watched this little guy flit from one bush to another over a period of about 40 minutes. At first I couldn't quite identify what I was seeing, I just caught a glimpse of movement every so often. When I did realise what it was I spent 20 minutes getting close to take this shot. I had left my 300mm f4 prime in the car and had to rely on my $150 70-300mm zoom, so I was quite pleased by the result.
Alex, one other thing to watch for is how centered you have the bird here. Check out the educational forum for tips on composition and the Rule of Thirds...I think it would help you figure out a stronger position for him in the frame.
I do wish there wasn't quite so much BG going on but you're right that your lens choice didn't help you there. Getting the bigger glass on gives you a smoother BG in most cases. You sure did get some great detail in that little bird with the lens you used, though!
@ Lance - Spot metering was not intentional :o, it wasn't until after the shot was taken that I realised that I had switched from center weighted to spot, instead of pattern metered. However, I was trying to get a good head angle and eye contact, so my spot was unintentionally positioned on the gray of his head - I am not sure if this made any difference, I would love to hear your thoughts.
@ Julie - thank you for your advice. I will head over to the educational forum and do some reading. I appreciate your comments and will work on my composition for the next submission.
Hey Alex,
Great advice given all around but I want to add something to the OP comments.....just tweaking this by removing some of the BG bright areas (if you are OK with such things) wil really bring this up a notch or 2 as clearly shown in Gus's repost. I might blur or clean up the brighter spots in the BG even more....but your call on how much you want to do with some excellent suggestions.
Thank you Roman - I have been reading the education forum and will start to experiment with some background blurring techniques. I take your point about the hot spots.
Thanks Gus for the excellent demo. I also found a link in the education center for a 'rule of thirds' plug in for photoshop - I will start using that as a template in the future.
Thanks again everyone for the encouragement and ongoing support. :)
Verdin
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