Posted by Tom Dodson on April 21, 2006 at 11:10 AM
First year we`ve seen these in the garden.(always in the darkest area of course)
Canon20d 500f4 1/1000 f5.6 Iso 800 cropped (a lot)
Posted by Graham Bailey on April 21, 2006 at 3:16 PM
Hi Tom. I like the pose and the composition here but the brightly lit background distracts a bit much from the main subjuect. If you want to see them around more try putting out some niger seed (and maybe a couple of teasles to get them in to start with). I spent a couple of ours shooting these today, once i get round to it I'll post one or two here. I constantly had 4 - 8 of them around and they've become fairly bold too. One of them didn't even fly off when i was getting into the hide, which made me feel a little silly using a hide.
Sorry if this is negative but for me this image does not work, as a record of the species it is fine.
It is a nice pose from the bird, but the seting is not doing it any justice or you any favours......
As I'm sure you are aware the bg is far too bright and overpowering and with the bird in the shade the colouring of the plumage is not represented to its best. Graham has given good advice on ways to get these attractive birds at their best, what you also have to do is look beyond the subject, i.e look around the viewfinder, not just through it.
Sorry if this all sounds negative and harsh,attempting to be honest in my critique and to be constructive at the same time, follow Grahams advice on attracting them to where you want them pay attention to the lighting, bg, and surroundings and I'm sure you will get the image.
Hi,
Not got much to add to Graham and Phil's excellent advice other than to say that I think this would have worked better had the light been a lot less harsh,hopefully you'll get some more oppurtunities with a little softer light.
The angle and composition however works well here and I like the partially opened beak.
Discussion
4 repliesCanon20d 500f4 1/1000 f5.6 Iso 800 cropped (a lot)
Sorry if this is negative but for me this image does not work, as a record of the species it is fine.
It is a nice pose from the bird, but the seting is not doing it any justice or you any favours......
As I'm sure you are aware the bg is far too bright and overpowering and with the bird in the shade the colouring of the plumage is not represented to its best. Graham has given good advice on ways to get these attractive birds at their best, what you also have to do is look beyond the subject, i.e look around the viewfinder, not just through it.
Sorry if this all sounds negative and harsh,attempting to be honest in my critique and to be constructive at the same time, follow Grahams advice on attracting them to where you want them pay attention to the lighting, bg, and surroundings and I'm sure you will get the image.
All the best
Not got much to add to Graham and Phil's excellent advice other than to say that I think this would have worked better had the light been a lot less harsh,hopefully you'll get some more oppurtunities with a little softer light.
The angle and composition however works well here and I like the partially opened beak.