Rainbow Lorikeet in the back garden

[forknuts]

Hey,
I snapped this rainbow lorikeet a couple of days ago in the back garden. Any comments on composition, exposure etc would be appreciated. The image has not been cropped, but has had minor adjustments to WB and exposure.

Canon EOS 450D
Canon EF 100-300mm (no IS) @ 300mm
f/10, 1/100sec, ISO 800.

Thanks in advance,
Adam

[karen_s]

What a cool bird. I never see anything like that where I live.

Overall, it's a pretty good shot, though it does look a bit soft at the larger size. That might be a limitation of your lens (not familiar with the one you used but I had an 80-300 that was soft at 200mm +), or, it might possibly be from camera shake. Were you using a tripod or handholding? If you were handholding, the softness might be due to camera shake. I see your shutter speed was only 1/100th which is pretty slow for a focal length of 300mm. Rule of thumb is to have your shutter speed equal your focal length ... say @100mm would be 1/100th, @300mm would be around 1/320th. If you handheld, you did pretty darn good though.

You might also experiment with a bit wider aperture (smaller number). This would allow a faster shutter speed and might bokehtize (make more blurry) the background.

As for color, it looks a smidge yellow. That could just be my monitor though. I have it set with a bit of a yellow cast for processing photos for printing.

One last note, the light seems to be coming from behind him. I know birds don't take direction well, ok at all, and sometimes you just get what you can, but, as you shoot more and more, pay particular attention to where your light is coming from, even on overcast days. Try to take the shot when they face the light. It will make your post processing life so much easier.

Anyway, darn nice attempt. It took me two years of practice to a get a shot that good.

[itsTylerRandall]

What a beautiful bird.

I feel that he is a tad underexposed though :/ This may be due to the light source being on the opposite side of where you are shooting. A good tip I learned from photographers here and also in books on the art is to try and have your back to the sun when using natural light as the only source. This will highlight your subject and make the colors pop more creating more contrast towards the background.

Not only this, but I feel the depth of field and composition may be a tad off, but that may be just me. Try shooting your subject in areas that aren't in the ordinary realm that you see all the time (this being the center of the picture). Try looking into the rule of thirds and practice shooting at different angles for different perspectives. As for the depth of field that would just require a larger aperture (lower f-stop).

Besides that, great shot, love the bird and keep shooting.

[forknuts]

Thanks for the feedback guys - I really appreciate it.
Karen, I was hand holding and this lense is one of the old slide-to-zoom ones with no IS and is a bit dodgy - but it was free so I won't complain - like this:


I had the mode set to AP so that explains the slow shutter speed, but I'm at a loss to explain why I had the aperture set at f10
I guess there's nothing for it but to keep practicing!
Cheers,
Adam