Take your pick..... (C&C)

[FemFugler]

Let me know which(if any) you like or fits the best....

1

2

3

4

Oh and the original/unedited......
(5)

Bah, i keep forgetting to put 'C&C' at the end of the title of my threads...

 

[Tiny]

number 1 would be a lot better if there was more DOF.

 

[milesy]

would like to see the whole bird in focus...and im not really a fan of the black backgrounds

 

[pbelarge]

What is the theme of these shots. It seems too random with a bird that is part in focus and part out of focus.


When we see a photo for the first time, our eyes and mind are immediately hit with a sensation.

The sensation can and usually involves emotion of some type.
This picture does not stir up any emotion for me. I am asking myself questions...



Make it so we either do not need to ask questions or...an emotion is stirred when the
"eye meets the mind"

 

[LBPhotog]

#1 to me says, "Kayto the ninja" and is the best in the series ... #2 is too saturated and looks horribly fake ... #3 is too flat for black and white ... #4 is just creepy.

Keep trying - he's a willing subject and I know you can do better than these ... I saw the pictures of the Skink you posted and those were good.

 

[JeffieLove]

If you hadn't posted the original unedited, I would have thought these were failed selective coloring (as in they wouldn't work with this photo)...

I like the contrast in the BW of #4, but I have to agree that having the whole bird in focus would have been better

 

[LBPhotog]

Too Fem's defense here, if any of you have ever worked with photographing parrots (especially your own) you know that they move quickly ... IT IS possible that that her parrot WAS in focus and he moved just enough ....

(again, I am trying to come to her defense here, I do truly believe, though, that by looking at the original, unedited image, this isn't a focus issue as much as a DOF issue ... it looks very dark where ever this parrot is standing and it's probably a very low f/stop, hence a very shallow/narrow DOF)

 

[JeffieLove]

Actually, now that you mentioned it LB, her f/stop is actually at 6.3 which (if I am thinking correctly.. i am still new) should probably have had the whole bird in focus... Possibly a higher ISO and faster shutter speed might have actually done the trick?

 

[LBPhotog]

Actually, now that you mentioned it LB, her f/stop is actually at 6.3 which (if I am thinking correctly.. i am still new) should probably have had the whole bird in focus

Well, let's take a look at this image a little more indepth then ... if we look at the original (never mind any of the edits) we can see that there IS A POINT of SHARP focus (well, it looks sharp to me, I don't have my contacts in yet) on Kayto's beak (I happen to know Fem, and I know this bird's name is Kayto). Kayto's beak is in focus, along with his nares (birdy nostrils) and even his eye looks to be in focus. So it's not an OOF image per se ... Though this bird doesn't look big there could be three to four inches from the tip of his beak to the rest of his body (bird's heads are naturally forward of their bodies and do not sit on the same focal plane like humans do - our heads, shoulders and chest are basically on the same focal plane).

So your thought here about f/6.3 being a big enough aperture to keep Kayto in focus, though it SHOULD be OK with a human, isn't really going to work with the way this shot is taken with the way parrots are designed ...

... possibly a higher ISO and faster shutter speed might have actually done the trick?

Well, yes and no, a higher ISO would allow for a higher aperture setting, giving her more DOF so that would help. Faster shutter speed, well, maybe not, unless he was moving ... and in this particular picture it doesn't look like he was moving.

 

[indeedies]

I thought the first one was cool Fem. I have an active imagination and was thinking it was a killer bird on the hunt. Just lurking beneath the shadows waiting for someone to accidentally walk by lol.

And then someone mentioned Kayota the ninja and that made me think of the Kung Fu Dodos off of Ice Age lol

 

[FemFugler]

Thanks for advice everyone...

Maybe i should have used a different subject. Birds(or any animal) are difficult to photograph because they move constantly. It was mentioned on another member's thread about planning and not just 'snapping them off'. It's kind of difficult to plan when your subject keeps moving his head back and forth and what not. Even the dog stays still longer than the bird!

I originally wanted to put the bird in a box with his head poking out but by the time i put him in, and picked up my camera, he was already out again! So i had to make do with him standing on the floor instead.

The dark background is probably because i didn't exactly do it at the greatest time of day, it was shot in the evening with some what dim lights on/not great lighting(the lighting in my house is weird) either way though, i probably should have done it at a different time of day.

To be honest, i didn't really have theme.... I wouldn't go as far as saying they're 'snapshots' but basically i originally wanted to get him in the box peaking out of flaps and then i was going to edit it to give it a darkish feel.... with a possibility of B&W depending on how they(it) turned out.