Northern Cardinal

[Dick Collins]

Today was a good day for Cardinals with about 6 pair at the feeders. Taken with a Sony A580 & a Minolta 600 F4. 1/800 @ F4.5, ISO 400, Pattern metering. It's about a 50% Crop.. Sharpened and detail tweeked a bit using Topaz Adjust 5. I had to clone out a small branch and some snowflakes. Comments are welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Randy Stout]

Dick:

Nice look back pose, sharp, well exposed, nicely scaled perch, nice eye with enough catch light showing to give it some life.

I would remove the snow flake ? on the right of the tail, 1/2 way down.

The BG color goes well with tones in the cardinal.

Is your 600 auto focus? I don't know the Minolta gear well.

Cheers

Randy

[Hazel Grant]

yes, nice eye, pose. Head feathers seem a bit soft. Also, a spot on his back needs cloning. Looking forward to more cardinals from you!

[gail bisson]

Nice look back but the head is a bit soft. I can see the areas where you cloned the snowflakes out- to the right and left of the tail. I would tidy those up.
Gail

[Joe Senzatimore]

To add to the valid comments already made , I might add a very small catchlight in the eye as well. Also , if you can , I would make the perch a bit of a diagonal , if this is a set up and you can move it.

[Arthur Morris]

Love the image design. Colors a bit flat. Did some plumage and bill clean-up, some Selective Color work, and lightened the iris a bit.

[Dick Collins]

Thanks for the comments and the repost. A great way to learn !! Randy, the lens is auto focus.