Zeroing In

Photo taken wandering round our backyard during one of the many covid lockdowns.

Comments and feedback welcome 🙂

Excellent capture - love the diagonal composition and the color! Is it cropped or was it shot like that?

The power and attraction is due to the shape of the bird. Whether real or augmented, I would consider dialing back on the saturation. The color is powerful but for me it detracts from the subject.

Nicely captured. I like the composition and the wing gesture. If this is a crop, and it was mine, I might take "one step back" to allow just a little more border, but the relative position of the bird within the frame is dead on. The palette works but I agree with dialing back the saturation —at least to have a look. The orange pulls the eye away from the subject and, unfortunately, there isn't enough detail to draw me back. I’m firmly in the sharp isn’t everything camp, but the subject in the context of this image is right on the border of too soft for me — I'm struggling with that. There's enough detail in the bird's body that I want to see more. I want the subject to be crisper — or to be moved far into the realm of dream with more blur.

I struggle with this in my own efforts at BIF — I'm a birder-of-opportunity, not dedicated to the craft. I'm under-lensed for this type of portrait unless I get very lucky and very close.

Nicely composed. Nicely executed. The flaws I see here are down to physics, not the photographer. (Unless, perhaps a faster shutter speed was an option.) If this were the local salon I wouldn't vote for acceptance, but I'd be glad you shared the image. Definitely not what we boys (and girls) in the back call “a groaner”.

Thank you simplejoy.

Yes it's a slight crop.

It depends on what you mean by "was it shot like that?". The image in my op is an 'artistic' version of the original processed from raw using Photoshop Elements + Elements XXL plugin.

This below is the 'documentary' version of the photo. For me it was ok but the sky as a background just didn't do enough for me so I wanted to add some 'punch' to the overall scene.

Thank you camperjimk.

Regarding the saturation, that's a tricky one. If I was standing beside you viewing my image on your screen it's quite possible I might agree but on my screen the saturation is not over powering and looks ok. Our screens are probably calibrated and profiled differently.

Thank you @jaberg

BIF is not my usual thing either. I'm more into landscapes and events.

You make very good points, thank you. I recall I was standing on our backyard decking when the crow appeared suddenly in the corner of my left eye and I just spun to my left and pressed the shutter button without any time to think about anything else. Burst mode helped a lot in getting a keeper.

Hi, new member here. I fully identify with your "birder of opportunity" self-description! I very much enjoyed your more fanciful version. I don't feel the orange overpowers because I too love saturated colors for effect. I feel the dynamic moment you captured - as opposed to a bird sitting on a branch, for example - lends itself to this treatment.

Thank you Linda and welcome to dprevived :-)