jteee Loc: Montana

I would like critique on this portrait. Some hotspots exist along the beak, but haven't been able to reduce that.
Canon 6D, Sigma 150-500 @ 500; 1/640; f8; ISO 800

(Download)

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

jteee,

Overall you did pretty well on capturing the Sparrow in bright daylight. The top of the Beak and some wing feathers are over-exposed (blown out white), but the rest of the bird is captured very well.

The important element in your posting is that the eye and head is very well focused, that is most critical. The wing feathers are softly focused and may be caused by narrow DOF from a low value Aperture setting.

How you could improve this in the next capture:
Capture the bird on a partly cloudy day where the bird is not in direct sunlight.
Watch the background lighting, you don't need any hot spots behind the bird. (Your posting had excellent background).
Close down the Aperture to between f/8 and f/16.

The top edge of the beak has what looks like a reflected bright line, this could be lens flare and corrected in PP.

Not all photos of birds will be good, you are under the control of Nature and birds are fickle in the wild.

Good luck, and keep shooting.

Michael G

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

Good close up portrait, jteee!
Assuming RAW capture and ETTR/EBTR exposure and focus and detail capture are excellent.
The clipped highlight on the beak and white markings could be easily reduceable and the incipient dumbell-shaped catchlight easily with-dealt in PS post processing.
good close up composition.

Kudos,
Dave

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Not a lot not to like with your photo except that I really need some definition in the sparrow's eye to create interest. The almost total black leaves me wanting.... of course the blown beak highlight has to have some work...

Not sure what PP software you are using, but it is so easy to recover deep shadows that you should give it a try if you haven't already to try and bring out some eye detail.

jteee Loc: Montana

I appreciate your review and comments. Always valuable.

jteee Loc: Montana

Thanks Dave for your review.

jteee Loc: Montana

I use Lightroom, and have struggled with this photo between the shadows and the highlights. As you know, with birds, sometimes it just requires a redo. :-)

Nightski

Wow jteee, you must have been close to this bird. You have captured the feather detail on it's head and shoulder area really well. Sharpness falls off on the wing and I see some color noise there. Your problem is the harsh light. Of course if you have soft light then it's hard to get shutter speed up where it should be. I think the biggest problem is that the birds eye is in shadow. The eye doesn't look alive when there is not a catchlight. I would not add one .. it wouldn't look right because that side of the bird's head is in shadow. I would keep trying until you get the bird at the right angle in the light.

Of course I don't need to say that .. I know you will. If you ask me, small bird photography is probably one of the hardest things you can do. They move fast, they are super sensitive to anything that signals danger, they like to perch in places where they are hidden, which means less light. You did as well as you could in the circumstances.

mrjcall Loc: Woodfin, NC

Just for fun, try the following on that photo:
Highlight slider max left
Shadow slider max right
Clarity slider max right
Exposure slider to your eye
White slider till red disappears
Black slider till blue disappears
Vibrance/Saturation sliders to your eye

Other tweaks as deemed necessary. Sometimes these settings work really well, sometimes not. I exposure to preserve highlights and recover shadows as necessary. Mostly handheld photos that I'm not using a tripod and shooting for HDR... 8-)

MTG44 Loc: Corryton, Tennessee

Hey Jerry. Find he shadow across his head distracting and the glare on the beak. Also the blurry feathers in the does not help. I do like it though. You going back to Yellowstone this spring?

jteee Loc: Montana

Thanks for your comments. Always appreciated. This guy happened to land on the back of a chair just inside the focal limits of the Sigma at 500 while I was set up shooting birds in a tree setting. Unfortunately, as you can tell, he was in harsh light. Like you say, sometimes you get what they give you. :-D

jteee Loc: Montana

I'm going on a Photo Tour of Yosemite in January, so if I go to the park it will probably be on my own (easy since I live 90 miles away). Thanks for taking the time to review the photo.