Reading the Riot Act?

[Norm Dulak]

Nikon D7000 w/Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 vrII lens @ 300mm, hand held
ISO Equivalent 640
f/9.0, 1/800 sec.; Matrix Metering -0.33

I don't know what prompted the interaction between two tree swallows in our yard. But I found it interesting and thought I'd share this image with you.

Please tell me, what do you think about it?

Norm

[Levina de Ruijter]

Norm, I really like the action you captured here.

There are a few things that in my opinion could do with a bit of improvement. The first is the blue band on top. I would give that the same colour as the rest of the background.
I also think some of the darks are a bit too dark and I would suggest taking the image to S/H to try open them up a bit. And I wonder if it would look better with a perch that is not tilted, although these things tend, by their very nature, to always *be* tilted.

One last thing that I am noticing is the almost fluorescent halo I'm seeing, most noticeably on the left side of the left bird. It's a processing thing and should be easy to fix.

To sum up: I like the image a lot but think that with a few tweaks it could even be better.

[Randy Stout]

Norm:

Very good input from Levina.
The interaction is fun and does make you wonder what the deal was.

The halo effect looks like a sharpening halo to me.
Ideally would like to have a better view of the left birds face.

Cheers

Randy

[Alan Murphy]

Levina covered all my thoughts. Nice interaction.

[Norm Dulak]

Thanks everyone! I think Levina's comments and suggestions are excellent, and I appreciate all of your thoughts.

Norm