redwing blackbird composition

[wotan1]

Please be gentle with me, this is my first image post and this place can be intimidating.

This was shot yesterday with my 800mm pf on a cloudy day

Handheld

ISO 8000
800mm
f/6.3

1/1250 second

Reach was long and this image was cropped a bit

Not saying this is the best quality photo that I or the lens can create, but I thought the composition was interesting.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[Nimi]

I like the colors and subject very much.

If this were my shot, I'd recompose in such away that there was at least as much distance to the right as the left of the bird, in other words, make it gaze into more space than behind it. Also, can't tell if it's background or sensor dirt, but regardless I'd remove the dark patch/dot on the right, next to edge, about a third way down.

 

[wotan1]

Thank you, good points.

 

[MrFotoFool]

Color and detail are fantastic - nice shot! As already stated, you usually want more space in front of the subject than behind. In front of means the direction it is looking, so in this case I would want more area on the right and less on the left.

 

[wotan1]

Thank you.

 

[bleirer]

Nice shot! To me a vertical crop cutting out the leftmost plant would be best. My reasoning is you already gave us the context with the bird in the perch but the additional plant does not add to it. That way there can be more room the direction the bird is facing.

Maybe a 2:3 or 3:4 ratio vertically.

Could clean up those stray grasses let the eye be directed to the area of interest.

 

[wotan1]

I will take another run of this image tomorrow.

 

[Palouse]

Nothing to add, but to say congrats on a great image.

 

[TurtleCat]

One thing apart from what others have mentioned… to me it would look great if you isolated the background and darkened it just a tad. And then brightened (midtones) just a little on the bird.

 

[Woody Meristem]

Excellent photograph; as others have said, I'd crop enough off the left side to give the bird more space to look into.

 

[Pete D]

Please be gentle with me, this is my first image post and this place can be intimidating.

This was shot yesterday with my 800mm pf on a cloudy day

Handheld

ISO 8000
800mm
f/6.3

1/1250 second

Reach was long and this image was cropped a bit

Not saying this is the best quality photo that I or the lens can create, but I thought the composition was interesting.

View attachment 77844

I'd crop this to a vertical with bird and the three cat tails. Beautiful colors on this.

 

[RichF]

I like the colors and subject very much.

If this were my shot, I'd recompose in such away that there was at least as much distance to the right as the left of the bird, in other words, make it gaze into more space than behind it. Also, can't tell if it's background or sensor dirt, but regardless I'd remove the dark patch/dot on the right, next to edge, about a third way down.

Agree. Excellent image. Yes I would crop from the left to give more room on the right. Crop is a square. Perhaps a portrait crop. Overall, well done.

 

[wotan1]

I am going through some training videos on Lightroom and I will revisit this image probably some time next week.

 

[agrumpybirdphotographer]

Agree with all the above, it all takes practice, patience and persistence. Fine first post IMO plenty of information out there and lots of really good friendly, knowledgable and helpful people on here to ask.

Nice one.

 

[Piecat]

Zooming in really helped me agree with the above advice. Beautiful shot!

 

[TurtleCat]

I hope you're not offended but I took a stab at what I would do with this image. If you are, my apologies. FWIW I did what I suggested with a crop and also tweaked saturation and blacks to my liking. But this is just what I would do, not what you should do if you're happy with a mother look.

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[wotan1]

I like it.

I have more space available to the right in the uncropped RAW file and I was going to tackle that next week.

 

[Irap]

Very nice shot, the only thing that I would of done different, would be to frame the bird to the left, looking into the open area.

 

[wotan1]

I took a stab at this.

You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.

 

[bleirer]

I took a stab at this.View attachment 78568

That's a nice result. Honest feedback, you missed on the selection, between the cattails and around the tops and sides. Once fixed that is a keeper. What did you use to select?