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Spent a few days around Christmas at my parents house. My dad is a keen gardener (unlike his son ) so they have a lovely flower filled back yard and a feeder for the birds. I'd brought my 50-500mm Sigma (BigMos) lens so I figured I'd try a little attempt at birding. The weather was pretty dull most of the time we were there (at least at the times the birds decided to come and feed) so we were pushing ISO to get any shots.

Rodney

I really think you've nailed it with #2 here - DOF is spot on and the expression/eye contact are great. #3 on the other hand really bothers me - did you add a vignette or was there something else causing that effect? Either way that distracts me from the bird.

stubbsy wrote:I really think you've nailed it with #2 here - DOF is spot on and the expression/eye contact are great. #3 on the other hand really bothers me - did you add a vignette or was there something else causing that effect? Either way that distracts me from the bird.

Thanks Peter - the vignette is all mine I'm afraid... here it is sans vignette

I can see why you used some vignette on the third image as the background is tending to distract.
You might like to attempt layering the whole background in a manner to tone it down across the whole frame.

#2 caught my eye due to the nice compo and colors. I don't know how flitty these creatures are but It's a great capture nonetheless.

#3 If you are keen to improve this one, perhaps also clone that twig out of it's body; for the background, you could colorise it to the opposite color of brown (not sure which it is) and see whether you can make the birdie pop. It's a tough one I think. [or just crop the hell out of it]

Love the first two pick-tures Rodney. Yes, we have these blighters everywhere you go in Coffs, but you have to love them.

It's a pity it was so dark on the day as I think greater DOF would add to the images of the lorikeets, but I understand your need to shoot wide open.

I love the colours in the 1st and 2nd. Of these two,
I think the 2nd is superb.

Mj wrote:I can see why you used some vignette on the third image as the background is tending to distract. You might like to attempt layering the whole background in a manner to tone it down across the whole frame.

surenj wrote:#3 If you are keen to improve this one, perhaps also clone that twig out of it's body; for the background, you could colorise it to the opposite color of brown (not sure which it is) and see whether you can make the birdie pop. It's a tough one I think.

Thanks Mj and Suren - sounds like it might be more work than the image is worth unfortunately. I found it difficult to get anything decent of the pidgeon style birds - they were very nervous and flew off when I moved or if other birds arrived.

ozimax wrote:Love the first two pick-tures Rodney. Yes, we have these blighters everywhere you go in Coffs, but you have to love them. It's a pity it was so dark on the day as I think greater DOF would add to the images of the lorikeets, but I understand your need to shoot wide open.

Thanks Ozi - should have seen what I attempted the next day - it was even duller/darker - I had a number of shots at ISO's up around 10,000

zafra52 wrote:I love the colours in the 1st and 2nd. Of these two, I think the 2nd is superb.

Thanks Zafra