Little Birdy looking at me

[pdaley221]

I already posted a picture of this bird, but I didnt realize I had an even better one of the bird looking at me. I am open to all critiques. This was in Manhattan on a trip I took with my family this christmas.

[Naurien]

Awww... the bird is so cute! I like the way you've captured nature in the big city. I also like the DOF on the wall. I'd probably suggest cropping it a bit; the cars are distracting me a lot from your feathered subject.

[Nieton21]

I like the moment a lot in this shot. I love the left corner out to the bird. It draws your eye so well. I agree the DOF is good, the more abstract parts of the wall help keep your focus in on the bird. I think it would be better with more cropping, I agree the cars seem a bit distracting. I though like the shallow DOF (as stated before, I would like a bit more clearity by the bird... though this may have resulted by merely being more zoomed in on the bird, just seems a bit blurry by the birds feet. Overall I like the shot.

[Aia Adriano]

First, isn't the image a little too big? O_o I'm new, but isn't there size restrictions? Second, it's too busy, I probably wouldn't notice the bird if you didn't say what your subject was. I suggest cropping as well. Lucky shot though, I can't seem to take anything that's moving. haha.

[wulf]

It is definitely worth cropping and making other modifications to. At the moment the subject is small, underexposed and position right in the centre of the frame. There are large blurred areas that distract and you also had your camera at a slight angle.

Those things can all be fixed fairly easily:

1. Rotate the picture so that the flagpole / lamp post in the background is vertical.

2. Crop so that the bird is relatively larger and probably not positioned centrally. Do you know about the "Rule of Thirds"? That might be a good guideline here.

3. Now things are larger and straighter, weight up if you also need to adjust the contrast, lighting and colour to bring out your subject better.

Wulf

ps. And check the rules for the critique section - if your pictures are on Flickr, the best thing to do is to post a copy of the medium size image from there linking back for those who want to see it larger