Common Grackle Black on Black

PixelRabbit · Jul 11, 2012

We have had a bird population boom around here and there are a plethora of these Grackles around right now. I've always had a hard time with black birds so I figured I would mess around with them on different backgrounds and see what I could come up with.
This one is my favourite so far

It has a unique quality to it with a bit of grain in the background and how "slick" the bird looks.

C&C always welcome and appreciated.

1/1000
F8
ISO1600

Bitter Jeweler · Jul 11, 2012

I :heart: this one!

crimbfighter · Jul 12, 2012

I love the composition of this one, it makes me feel like the bird is acutely aware, and ready to make haste in a moments notice.

C&C, as per your request: I, personally don't think the grain adds to this photo. I doesn't make it appealing to me. Looking at your EXIF data, you had your ISO WAY up there, giving you a light speed shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. In a scene like this, you could probably have reduced your ISO by more than half, which would bring your shutter speed down, as well, but more importantly, eliminating much of that grain, caused by digital noise. This could also be removed in Post, but it's always better to prevent it first. I Would think you could have reduced you ISO to 200, or what ever the lowest native setting is, and still had a shutter speed at or near 1/200 sec, which would have likely stopped any motion blur, and not captured the noise. I also felt a tighter crop was in order. See below..

I saw your photos were ok to edit, so I hope it was ok that I took a stab at it, if not, I can take it down. Even though I had a small file to start with, I still made some ok changes. I cropped some of the image out, to put the bird more on a third. In this case he crosses the top horizontal third and right vertical third. I feel like this edit makes the bird pop a little more, yet still keeping some of the context with the background. Though, the beauty is often in the eye of the beholder! Feel free to not like my edit!

PixelRabbit · Jul 12, 2012

Thanks Bitter

<3
Thank you Crimbfighter! I appreciate your C&C, I'm going to ponder it for a bit before I respond

Bitter Jeweler · Jul 12, 2012

On the edit, losing so much of the secondary compositional elements, kills the image.

PixelRabbit · Jul 12, 2012

crimbfighter said:
I love the composition of this one, it makes me feel like the bird is acutely aware, and ready to make haste in a moments notice.

C&C, as per your request: I, personally don't think the grain adds to this photo. I doesn't make it appealing to me. Looking at your EXIF data, you had your ISO WAY up there, giving you a light speed shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. In a scene like this, you could probably have reduced your ISO by more than half, which would bring your shutter speed down, as well, but more importantly, eliminating much of that grain, caused by digital noise. This could also be removed in Post, but it's always better to prevent it first. I Would think you could have reduced you ISO to 200, or what ever the lowest native setting is, and still had a shutter speed at or near 1/200 sec, which would have likely stopped any motion blur, and not captured the noise. I also felt a tighter crop was in order. See below..

I saw your photos were ok to edit, so I hope it was ok that I took a stab at it, if not, I can take it down. Even though I had a small file to start with, I still made some ok changes. I cropped some of the image out, to put the bird more on a third. In this case he crosses the top horizontal third and right vertical third. I feel like this edit makes the bird pop a little more, yet still keeping some of the context with the background. Though, the beauty is often in the eye of the beholder! Feel free to not like my edit!

First I want to say thank you again for taking the time to C&C and edit for me

I can see where you were going with your vision and edit, I do like how slick these birds are and your edit really brings that out. Unfortunately it also brings out a smoothness in the black "wall" (it is actually the back of a fountain) behind him and totally smooths out the rocks, all of the texture I planned to get in the entire BG is gone, it's all smooth now... like the bird. I have shot these guys a crazy number of times and that "smooth on smooth/bokeh" is what I was trying to get away from since I have a bazillion shots like that.

Another reason I wanted a higher shutter speed is how these birds move, they are random and jerky in their movement and very flighty, anything lower than 1/500 and you end up with way more throwaways, at about 1/1000 I can get those moments of takeoff etc...(there was method to my madness!)

I do see the charm of your smoothing and think it has merit as an option but it just wasn't the option I was aiming for this time around

As for the crop, I don't like it

It takes away everything I set up to be there for when the bird walked into the "sweet spot".

The textures of the seeds/wood on the bottom, grain in the black, texture in the rocks all were important to my intention of the shot, I wanted ONLY the Grackle to be smooth and offset and balanced by the textures and shapes around him, by eliminating most of the rocks and wood it's all gone and unbalanced to me now.

I appreciate your C&C despite us not being on the same page. It gave me the opportunity to go back through my process and thoughts while creating this shot and really be critical about my vision and execution and that is very cool

cgipson1 · Jul 12, 2012

Oops.... commented on your Flickr page, and forgot to here!

Very nice! I agree with Bitter about the edit.. I like the original that was posted. Love the lighting in this... and the way it highlights the subject, and give great background separation!

Good Capture!

PixelRabbit · Jul 12, 2012

Thanks Charlie

KenC · Jul 12, 2012

I like the original composition and the noise doesn't bother me, but the area in the upper left seems a bit too bright to me. You could darken it some without losing the textures and shapes and then it would not compete with the bird in brightness; it would recede more into the background. Same for that spot under its tail.

Very nice image in any case. Is this a young one? Usually they are darker than this in the summer.

BlackSheep · Jul 12, 2012

Nice shot Pixel!
It reminds me of a Robert Bateman painting for some reason.

jake337 · Jul 12, 2012

I like the original edit better. I feel I would like to see a few cm on the bottom of the image though. I feel it might create more balance with the background elements. I am not sure though, I would have to see it first.

crimbfighter · Jul 12, 2012

After hearing more about what and why you were trying to capture the image the way you did, I see why my edit is complete sheet, and subsequently ruined everything you were going for.. I hope I didn't offend, either. I tend to explain things to the n-th degree for no apparent reason, haha.. I consider myself corrected!

The_Traveler · Jul 12, 2012

This may be a common grackle but I don't think they are common in my yard so, as far as I am concerned, it is an un-common grackle.

That being said it is a very nice capture and I love the composition.

What do you think of lowering the intensity of the light on the gravel? It seems a bit strong and gets attention when it needn't.

WesternGuy · Jul 13, 2012

Nice shot. I like that you got the eye and that the bird is quite sharp and well-defined against the background. Thanks for sharing.
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WesternGuy

pgriz · Jul 13, 2012

Judi, those birds are tough to shoot well. You did an excellent job and other than Lew's lowering the brightness of the gravel, everything else (composition, posing, lighting, focusing) works. The eye is clear, the way the light falls on its back is wonderful in delineating the shape and separating the bird from the background, and your choice of background seems very appropriate. Again, I'm just echoing the earlier comments for the most part. The only niggle for me is that I'd love to see the image at higher resolution.