Shot my first Bird

[herderdog]

Today I decided to try something different other than fast moving black and white dogs (which are really a challenge I'm finding out) to bolster my photography skills.
My first bird---big ol' robin. Taken with the 100-400L IS

http://www.pbase.com/herderdog/image/40463847.jpg

[ayotnoms]

Whew.
When I saw the title of the post, I thought I was going to see a bird riddled by buckshot. Glad to see a pretty little bird instead 8-)

[herderdog]

Maybe I should put a little smiley there in the title! :lol::lol::lol:

[CyberDyneSystems]

HerderDog,

I don't know whether you appreciate this yet,. but your "first bird" has just about every ingredient that us birders strive for in a bird photo! :mrgreen:

Yes there are some little tidbits that could impove,. but first,. lets' look at what there is about this shot that is exactly what the doctor ordered! ;)

1. You have a good shot of the bird!
it's eye in focus and nothing blocking anything important. Details are clear.

2. You have the beginnings of a great composition. it's not dead center,.(that's good!) and the bird is facing into the photo,. the tree branch makes a great angle.

3. You have managed a great solid deep colored blurred background with only minor distractions in the small branches above and below the subject.

Very good stuff!

Can we offer some additional tips to help make it better?
How are your photoshop skils?
Did you crop this allready?

Here's what I'd do.
Tweek levels and color saturation a bit in your photo editor.
I beleive your exposure is good enough that you can easily get this to pop with color,. get that bereast the deep red/orange a Robin is supposed to have,. and make that background DEEP green..

Crop... take more off of the right hand side,. back the bird up towards the frame,.
Maybe a littel more of the bottom and topp too,. but not much.

Clone,. take out those two branches alltogether? Could work? Actually the one above and to the right might be fine afer the crop.

Sharpen..
If you only do one thing to this image,. just run some Ultra Sharp Mask on it..

What a great first shot!

[herderdog]

Wow!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate the feed back.
I'll work on it a bit and post back with a new image.
I'll see what I can get. :D I have some other images to work with as well.
He (the bird) was really cooperative--he sat there a long time while I fiddled around.

[stoneylonesome]

Good SHOOTING! with a camera that is :lol: :lol: that is one nice shot, I agree with everything CDS said. :)

[herderdog]

Coming back with a new image. Took all the branches out. Thanks again for the advice--it is much appreciated!!
http://www.pbase.com/herderdog/image/40429210.jpg

[herderdog]

Looking at it now--maybe I cropped too much off of the top?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Too much off the top,. yep! :)
See you are getting it!

But the rest of your changes look fantastic ;)

[herderdog]

:rolleyes: I cropped before I did the other changes. I'll have to do it over.

But you really have me looking at my dog pictures too. I don't think I saturate them enough either.
They look better a little tuned up.
I find the black really hard to capture right. The shadows get lost. Thankfully there is PS!!

[herderdog]

Here is a different shot of him. I think I like this one better.

http://upload.pbase.com/image/40430713.jpg

[sparker1]

The first one, revised, really does it for me. You got some great advice and executed it well. Good work all around.

[herderdog]

Ooops--just figured out I had accidentally deleted the original image in this thread. It's back.--Sorry! :o

[cmM]

nice shot.

[RichardtheSane]

Great shot there. The las one is really nice.

Been said before, but the US robins are so much different to oursin the UK!

[Alan B]

I hope you dont mind.I had a play with your 1st pic and this is what i would have done.

http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=y7eln9&outx=600&noresize=1&nostamp=1

I croped the pic
Tweeked the Brightness and saturation
Tweeked the color balance
Added 0.3 of unsharpen mask(to bring more of the detail out.

IMO a pic should look more natural and not bright over the top colours.

EDIT - forgot to say.I cant wait to get that lens at the end of march :D :cool:

[herderdog]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for doing that. Much appreciated!
I like what you have done too. Leaving the twigs in I think is accepatable with that crop. That bottom one points in at the bird and keeps your attention focused on him. Nice job. :D

I really like the 100-400 (I should!!!). I see you have the 70-200 F/4. I was going to sell it, but took it out and got some nice shots. I think I'll keep it. It is such a good value for the money .But no more lenses for awhile!!

I'm going to take it to work with me today(F/4). I work right down near a ferry terminal and a marina-park in the Seattle area and see what I can get.
My boss said he saw someone with a great-big white lens on his camera walking around. Go figure? ;)