A few recent bird photos

[ScubaDude]

Red Headed Woodpecker by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr


Savannah Sparrow by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr


Brown pelican, revisited #3 by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr

 

[Austin Greene]

Since when did another diver join the forums?! Jeez I'm out of the loop! Great to have another one of us around though

#1 isn't my favorite. The subject is quite blurry and small.
#2 I definitely appreciate the great greens and the colorations on the bird, but I feel like again the bird is a tad small for the shot. Negative space can be useful at times, but this shot has just a bit too much.
#3 Again, maybe a bit too much negative space, though its better than #2. Colorations on the bird seem a bit cold, maybe try to bring up the saturation of them a bit? Still, a shot that has a lot of potential.

 

[Primoz]

#2 Very cool shot, but I feel like it's a just a bit overedited for my taste in terms of contrast, clarity and saturation...

Edit: This is what I meant... I feel that the green saturation, sharpness and contrast of the grass is stealing away the attention from the little bird...


6860809076_00e89a7fd8_o-2 by PrimozKovacic, on Flickr

 

[1000_Islander]

The Woodpecker appears sharp and well exposed.
I might suggest a crop to keep the viewer's eyes from going from side to side.

 

[ScubaDude]

Thanx for all the comments. My wife thinks that ALL of my photos are perfect (or maybe she's just being nice). It's good to get some non-biased critiques.

togalive: To be honest, I don't dive any more... sinus problems. The last couple of time I went I almost blew my eardrums. Maybe someday I'll see a doctor about it. But, I've used the ScubaDude name for email and log-ins for so long that I'm stuck with it. Shots #1 and 2 are extreme crops (less than 10% of the original frame), so I lost a lot of quality there. I've been hunting the woodpecker for about a month, so I was just happy to get a good pose. #3 was taken on a cold, cloudy morning. Adjusting the color balance just seemed to make it look artificial (tho I'm not the greatest Photoshopper in the world). Looking at it now, tho, I think I should crop a little off the top.

Primoz: I do like your crop better. I didn't want to crop it down any more than I did, because I had already cropped 90% of the shot away. And, I've heard from others that I overdo it with sharpening and processing... sometimes a little is better than a lot. Seems like every time I read a Photoshop tutorial I go crazy with it (maybe time to get my monitor calibrated, too).

1000_Islander: I like your crop better, also.

 

[slackercruster]

Nice!

 

[Joel_W]

I completely agree that pictures 1 & 2 really need further crops as the birds are just too small. Picture 1 also suffers from that blue sky past the tree. Now picture #3 is a super composition with the correct proportions. Of course working with a larger bird makes it just that much easier.