What’s Your Preference?

wpp234 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 07:23 AM

What do you guys think of this photo of a vulture taken at a Owl and Raptor Centre, Dorset?

Canon 1000D
Tamron 300mm
1/1250
f5.6
ISO 400

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wulf · #2 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 08:48 AM

Nicely detailed on the feathers on the back of the bird's neck and into the side of the face. A slightly greater depth of field might have been better although no need to go to extremes; perhaps a stop or two more aperture compensated by a slightly slower shutter speed, giving a wider zone of focus but still tailing out by the beak.

I don't know if you have done any post processing tweaks but it would be worth considering raising the mid-tones a bit so that the interesting portions of the photo are better competition for the brightness of the background, as well as applying a bit of subtle sharpening to bring out the details you have caught even more.

Weaknesses? I think it would be better with a little more space on to the right of the frame - you don't necessarily have to bring the subject all the way over to the left but give a bit more breathing room. With the plain background, that should be easy to do in post-production. Also, watch out for chromatic aberration on the foreground feathers (purple tinge) and round the beak (green tinge). Post production can help there - I find my 70-300mm lens also shows this effect less when not zoomed so far.

Wulf

ps. only one critique thread per day please - you can repost your other one tomorrow.

NgaiHill · #3 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 08:51 AM

Firstly, well done on the shot, I imagine that they are not easy birds to capture and I like the detail you got in the feathers on the neck. Two things that bother me though - the shallow DOF leaves the face & beak out of focus, perhaps closing the aperture a bit might have helped with this. Also there is a bit of empty space behind the birds head and nothing in front, nowhere for the bird to be looking, I find that a bit distracting. Just my two cents, hope it helps

wpp234 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-31-2011, 12:17 PM

Thanks for the tips! That is really great advice to take with me for future shots...

I made some changes to the cropping, mid tones and a sharpen mask...