Been a while since we had a Birdie pic - Background OK?

[Radtech1]

I found this guy down at the beach in San Diego. I am wondering if the background works. Usually, I find a 2-tone background distracting. But in this case the dark background fronted buy the light plumage and the light area fronted by the dark beak. Do you see the balance there that I am seeing? Or is it a case of me seeing what I want to see and the split background kills it?

Rad

http://home.ripway.com/2004-2/78486/Canon/Birdie.jpg

[Molydood]

I see it, it's really nice.
Shame the dark half of the background wasnt a little further towards the right side of the frame

[pompano64]

i thnk it worked pefectly. especialy the angle of his head and nose

[Scottes]

Hmmm. I thought that I had commented on this one. I must have gotten interrupted in work when I was checking it.

Just from the plume and beak being black I'm going to guess that this is a Snowy Egret - though I'd expect more yellow in the lores. You didn't happen to see the leg color did you?


So, I *really* like this shot - which is what surprised me when I found that I hadn't commented. The dark on the right side really shows off the plume, which is great with the almost-backlighting. Exposure is just about perfect - very little blown-out highlights - well done for the lighting on a white bird. Composition is very good - again I really like the dark left, and the neck splitting the black/white is great. Eye and beak are placed very well.

The very small amount of the body showing is bothersome - either go more or less. I'd actually like to see a taller image showing more of the body, but I have no idea what's down there so this composition may have been the right thing to do. Cropping out that section would be a bad thing I think, but it might be worth trimming equal amounts from top and bottom. A tiny bit more room to the right of the beak might be nicer - not much though, just a little breathing room.

The small patch of white in the upper left is a little bothersome but nature isn't always perfect to us. It seems like it could use a bit more sharpening. If you don't mind some processing, a bit of shadow recovery on the beak might bring more detail to the middle third and break up the solid blackness there. (That's a stretch of a nit-pick, that one.)


The nit-picks are all small, and the important parts done well. And there's a bit of emotion there, too. Well done.