Stonechat (female)

[Jonathan Ashton]

Canon 7D Canon 500mm f4 L IS & 1.4TC1 ISO 400 1/800 sec f5.6
This female was only a short distance from the previous male I posted. I did some Dodge & Burn (using layers) on the stonechat to try to balance the strong front light and relative shadow on the back. The image is quite a large crop perhaps 30-40% of the original.
All C & C welcome.

[Mike Landwehr]

Jonathan, I think you did a good job of balancing the lighting. I like the mood generated by side-lit profile shots when the light comes in at an angle that provides ample light to the near side of the bird's head, and I think it works well in this image. It's a little thing, but I really like the posture of the extended left leg. If you have enough pixels to maintain acceptable image quality, it might be interesting to simplify the image by cropping out the tall OOF spike on the left, and taking some off the bottom, maintaining the subject's position at the upper right power point. Otherwise, I'd leave it alone and consider it a good environmental image of a well-posed stonechat.

[Dave Leroy]

I really like the lovely earth tones and colors. Photo could be brighter for my tastes and a slight bit more head turn would be great.

I really like the habitat aspect in both shots and if near me, I would be going back and looking for some lovely light.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jon, nicely perched in the open, and although she is fairly small in the frame, I do like the detail you have brought out on her. The BG colours compliment her nicely, and I would try a version with a little off the LHS.