Bird on a flower

[Bobobird]

How does this look?

Is the background somewhat distracting. PP advice requested.

Thanks.



Shot with the 70-300L with 1.4TC.

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Not at all,for me.

[JPS]

Hi Bobo,
I'm only looking on my laptop at the moment, so am not using my large monitor; but it looks about right to me. Have you sharpened it using PP, or is it as shot?

[Bobobird]

Thanks Radu.

Thanks John - pic was taken with a 1.4TC attached so came out somewhat soft. Had to do a bit of NR and sharpening in PP + the usual contrast/levels tweaks.

[Markvetnz]

I like the image a lot. I would use a tighter crop. A lot of those branches add nothing to the image. A light vignette around the main subject would bring it out more too.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Mark.

Not sure if it will take to further cropping - already very tight though it was taken at 420mm.

I do not understand the vignette the subject part.

[Geoff F]

I do not understand the vignette the subject part.

Very basically, blur the background a little more.

Although I think that as an alternative, I would crop the left side and top. Ideally by quite a bit. Then apply a little selective sharpening to just the bird, which would give it a little more 'pop'. Possibly starting again with sharpening and just sharpening selectively on the bird and flowers would achieve better balance.

I suspect this would give the results you require. There isn't a lot wrong with the shot, it's just a case of a few final tweaks.

It is a pity that twig is in front of the flower but you couldn't do anything about it. Also, you appear to have obtained sharper focus on the flower than the bird. Maybe the aperture gave a rather shallow depth of field. But these are common problems with this sort of shot, particularly when using auto focus.

[Bobobird]

Thanks Geoff, will try your suggestions.

Shot was at iso 200, f8, 1/250, 420mm.

[Kathy O]

I really like the picture alot!!! I do not find the background distracting at all!! I am very much an inexperienced photographer but my eyes see a beautiful photo.

[Bobobird]

Thanks for the kind words Kathy.

Have done a couple of variations but none look any better.

The background is not quite the distraction I thought at first. The triangular shape + the twig in front sort of creates an umbrella or "house" over the bird and flowers. Looks cool that way - sheltered bird.