Little woodpecker

[chris2471]

I found this little guy at my backyard feeders. He let me get pretty close. This is one of my first shooting in raw. I would like to know if the composition of the shot is good, if the crop does this image justice, and any other things you see such as lighting or adjustments that could make this shot better.
Thanks for looking!





Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 200

[Sterling]

For me, the composition doesn't really work. I don't think you'd lose a thing by cropping about 30% of the photo's width from the left side. The subject of the photo, the bird is too close to the edge of the frame and his tail and the wooden perch are cut off. Nice shot of the bird - just need to work on the composition a bit.

[chris2471]

Thanks for your feedback Sterling. I'll tinker with it a bit to see if I can make it a bit better. Unfortunately, I didn't get much of the feeder he was on in this shot. Here's the original before I cropped.

[mk12mod]

it's a great shot in whole though for the crop i agree it could be a little tighter...

[Slyanius]

Comparing both shots... did you do any sharpening in post for the first shot? The bird looks a little too sharp to me.

[PrimeTime]

A simple rotation of your camera would have fixed all your problems. The second you saw you were clipping the birdfeeder in half, you should have switched to a virtical composition.

[chris2471]

Slyanius, I did sharpen it in the first pic. Prime Time, thanks I agree. I do have several shots in both camera positions, I just happened to like the position of the bird in this one. Thanks for your comments!

[yrot.tory]

somehow, i totally seem to understand what your trying to get at, at this composition. your trying to make the bird seem to be dreaming off/starring or something like that. i think more of the tail would be better, and make the cropping with the width shorter than the length that's what i would do.