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You captured the bird really well! It seems to me that even though the background is blurred, it still has enough detail and variation in color to be distracting. There is a lot of whitish-blue color that keeps the bird from really standing out. You did a good job, though. It’s hard to get a bird to pose in just the right place!
Nice shot.
I’m not sure if the trees on the right and twig on the left side of the image is perhaps a little bit too distracting.
More of an issue though is the background. I see you pushed the colors some by saturating the image. I think you would get a much better image if you use the brush to de-saturate the background and leave the bird as it is or perhaps slightly increase the exposure on the bird.
On my monitor, which I calibrate regularly, the white balance appears slightly off with the bird looking a little purple.
Looks like you had a little more room to drop your ISO and decreased your shutter speed by a stop or so perhaps yielding a slightly sharper image.
Nice job.
Thanks for the critique!
I realize I should have shared some on how I took the photo. For one thing, the lens is new to me and so I’m just trying to get used to it. I’ve never worked with such a long heavy lens before. I also haven’t had much practice with shooting birds. 🙂 So you might say I was trying to achieve some practice with birding. Now how I took the picture…
Since blue jays tend to be cowardly and flighty birds, I opted for hiding out in our van with the back doors open. We have a bird feeder which helps to attract the birds closer to our home. As I thought, after a while the blue jay gained the courage to take a closer look – exactly where I wanted him without him even knowing I was there. In this way I was able to achieve a shot of a blue jay that’s relaxed rather than on the verge of fright and flight! However, there are many things I wished I had done differently in the shot in hindsight. I agree with Dan Cope on your thoughts as well as what timtam has to say about the ISO and shutter speed.
Thanks again… I hope to put into practice what I learned from you next time!
Here is the metadata that I failed to include with original post:
Canon 60D
1/1600
ISO 1000
f5.6
285mm on 70-200mm 2.8 is II with 2x teleconverter IIIVery creative. My first thought was too many elements going on in the photo. I think that because the right side of the image is bright and larger than the bird, it’s grabbing for my attention. Perhaps a painted, subtle vignette would help?
I like the vertical crop much better! It removes a lot of distracting material, while leaving the focus on the bird. Good shot!
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