Boxing Day Robin

[rich_uk]

Hello everyone @ DPS - so impressed with the site's overall content, knowledge and warmth that it was about time I stopped simply lurking and signed up.

The picture of the robin was taken mid-morning on Boxing Day (Dec 26th '07) whilst talking a walk with my fiancee and mother-in-law.



The image (as with all of my images at this stage) hasn't had any post-processing applied to it - I wouldn't know where to start.

I am very keen on nature, landscapes and close-ups and was really here, just starting off with a close up of nature I was proud of. Don't shoot me but I think I was most probably on the 'AUTO' setting and I think I payed the price - the pic looks as part of the branch beofre was the focus lock rather than Mr Robin redbreast himself.

Any pointers/suggestions would be great.

Thank you.

My setup's really basic, I have the Canon S2 IS.

[jiminyClickit]

rich_uk, Welcome

Everyone starts about like that, see what the camera knows, center a subject, get focus slightly off. With the feathers, it's not obvious, but you noticed it. Good eye.

Moving around is not always possible, so b/g is whatever you get; if you had been able to show Mr.Robin against a darker less cluttered area, better.

Thanks for DPS description, it is good to hear that.

[wulf]

You could try cropping to a portrait format, loosing the bright blue strip of background down the left and some of the space to the right. The background will still be a bit bright and cluttered but with just that alteration, you will have simplified it a lot and also made the robin relatively larger in the frame.

Wulf

[rich_uk]

Thanks jiminyClickit for your feedback and to you wulf.

I did try many times to crop to portrait but every time I did (and in trying to constrain proportions) I was finding that mr robin's sides were either a) too close to the sides or b) I was getting too much of the lower left thin stick in the bottom of the shot beneath the main branch he's perched on.

So, and I feel a bit 'naughty' going against your advice, but see what you think of the result with a landscape crop, quite well centered and still keeping out the left and right bright blue and white edges.

Original:



After:



Regards,

Rich.

[EdithOSB]

I appreciate the thread here - I'm one of those untrained folks who just crops by eye. I noticed the background seemed busy, but hadn't noted those bright bands as particularly troublesome - that comment helped.

I really like the tight crop: it's almost like a personal introduction to Mr. Robin. As the background really isn't interesting or informative, it doesn't matter that it's lost.

[mrodgers]

What you call a "robin" is significantly different than a "robin" where I am.....



(not a good photo. Only to show what a robin is to me)

[wulf]

Originally Posted by rich_uk

So, and I feel a bit 'naughty' going against your advice

It is your photo and your decision and the result does work well. If I had cropped I would have lost a part of the robin's tail; if you look at a lot of portraits you will see that it is not an inviolate rule that the whole subject must be contained within the frame. However, your choice is also good.

Wulf

[rich_uk]

Originally Posted by wulf

.. If I had cropped I would have lost a part of the robin's tail; if you look at a lot of portraits you will see that it is not an inviolate rule that the whole subject must be contained within the frame. However, your choice is also good.

Wulf

Wulf, thanks very much for the heads-up with regards to framing, that's good to know and I'm also very pleased that you liked my final choice.

Great!

Regards,

Rich.