Orchard Oriole

Good timing Melvin. It looks to me like you could lighten the exposure a little: maybe 1/3 - 1/2 stop. Could you post the tech details?

Cool shot Melvin, the head of the bird looks pretty sharp. I could go either way on cropping or not cropping. My guess is if you cropped it a lot the detail wouldn't hold up that well. As Ed said it's always good to post your techs (iso, shutter speed, f-stop) and equipment to help us give you more complete critiques.

Melvin,

I'd probably leave the branches in. The image does appear dark though, so I'd try to lighten it some without introducing unwanted noise.

I agree it is a little dark but the comp is great. The first thing I thought of when I saw this is, she is going to build a nest here. It looks sharp but I really can't tell with image posted at 720.

Camera is a Canon 5d Mark 2 with a 100-400mm lens hand held
shutter speed 1/500
aperture value 800
iso speed 100

R. Melvin Park

aperture value should be 8.0



R. Melvin Park
Plumas, Manitoba

For this type of action shot I would bump your iso all the way up to 400 or so to try and freeze the action. Small birds fly extremely fast and that camera can handle much higher isos than 100.