Birds - C&C

mikeWest · May 17, 2012

1.

2.

3.

(Not a bird)

I'm not sure which one to keep 1 or 2? I know I should've not cut off the feet but the pictures with the feet in didn't come out well for other reasons (motion blur). #3 is not interesting in terms of animal/pose but is an otherwise good picture, no? PS: I'm a total newbie, so give it to me straight: composition, exposure, etc...

mikeWest · May 18, 2012

69 views, and no responses?

Bo4key · May 18, 2012

They all seem a little underexposed. If I had to choose, i would pick the first one.

Another member on here suggested to me (and I'm sorry I forget who it was) to keep the sun at your back when shooting birds when at all possible, that way the sun will illuminate the subject better and you'll most likely get a catch light in the eyes to bring out some life.

dxqcanada · May 18, 2012

Bo4key'd info is correct, though it probably was not me who suggested it, that the angle of light on the subject is very important.
You should always be aware of how light illuminates your subject ... you have to change your view/position to take advantage of that ... though sometimes you many not have a choice.

Yes, you should have kept the entire body of the bird ... or really concentrated on a smaller portion, like a head shot.

dxqcanada · May 18, 2012

Suggestion ... look at other wildlife images and if feel they are great shots, you should examine why they are.
Example, the quality of light, the composition, the type of equipment used ... etc.

I may suggest you look at EricD: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/search.php?searchid=1339871

SCraig · May 18, 2012

I agree with the others. All of the shots are underexposed, probably because you were using matrix metering with those big blobs of blue sky behind the bird. Fill flash would have helped bout you would probably have only gotten one shot.

Also, if you are going to shoot birds sitting like that, turn your camera 90 degrees and shoot them in portrait orientation. All those trees on the right side do nothing and I'd much rather see more bird. And finally, as was mentioned, either shoot the entire bird or just the head and neck.

mikeWest · May 20, 2012

Thanks all. I'll take a look at some of the other pictures recommended.

Joel_W · May 20, 2012

Scott pretty much summed it up. None of your pictures are really composed well. As you said in pics 1 & 2 you cut off their feet, backgrounds are too busy as your DOF is way more then you needed. Picture #1 also suffers from a weird tilt of the head. There is no real reason to have cramped the bird so far to the extreme left with nothing to balance out the rest of the photograph. I would have placed the tip of the peak in picture 2 just about dead center. You should have used a portrait format, which would have corrected your composition issues, and used spot to establish your exposure.