GSquarkW

Managed an hour in the popup hide on Sunday. -10° at last and some early sun coming through the trees... a good thing and a bad thing as it hits the perch long before the background, I may need a second flash to light that up.

1DIV, ISO800, 500 f4.

The lighting on the wood is a little too flat - I think it would be nicer if there were not quite so much of it in the frame; but that would defeat the object of the overall comp which I like a lot.

So in a nutshell the wood over-powers things a bit - perhaps playing with a brush and negative exposure in LR might add some variation to the wood and make it slightly less over-powering.

Great PoV though - nice one

Hi Neil, do you have any more to the RHS? If so, moving the whole crop to the right, would that help in reducing the rather 'dominate' trunk, or kill the comp? Really like the curvature of the bird echoing the trunk.

TFS
Steve

Points taken. I am not a huge fan of too much trunk but the shapes were working for me. I will try blurring and knocking down the LHS although I thought the bright spots mirrored those of the pecker. Steve, I think more RHS would put the pecker central, I think I have a bit more so can play a little. Thanks!

Neil, unless you see the FF and know the limitations, or what an alternative option looks like, it's sometimes difficult to gauge a suggestion and therefore happy to go with your thoughts.

OK Steve. I will add something later (if my daughter goes to bed early :) I will try to tire her with sledging).

Yes Neil you just need to adjust that log somehow as the comp works for me. Happy with the dark BG too and for me I would forget the flash

Bob

Neil the little nits have been covered must say that trunk does grab you a bit,good pose on the bird ,like it!

Keith.

Neil

The bird is fine great control of the black and white feathers.

Hi Neil, the bird looks stunning with lots of detail and great lighting. Re the trunk ......if you had more space above the bird could you then crop some off below it to remove some of the visible trunk. I can see that you have the top left corner meeting the trunk so you then may have a dead area. I have cropped the original (sorry lost the lovely watermark! ) but it sort of gives an idea.

Nick.

Lovely detailed shot, the composition looks good to me - my only thought is that it needs a little more room on top, and a little off the bottom. I don't think the trunk is too dominant, just a little bright. This shot demonstrates really well how they use that stiff tail as a prop.

Personally, I like the dominance of the textured trunk it gives me a sense of scale for the woodpecker. Excellent shot.

Looks ok as is to me but find the bird a teeny bit harsh again for want of a better word.maybe better as said without a flash at all. Exposure etc, fine though.
JR

Nice comp and a stunning bird, interesting to see what Andy's suggestion would look like

OK. I only cropped about 100 pixels from around the shot (to avoid a gap between tree and BG lower left). So I will stick with what I have, works on the 3rds etc... and shapes fit. Here is an edit for Andy and thanks for all the comments.

Whilst I like the nice interesting wood the last crop is best for me

very nice shot

Ian

Last one for me too, colours look very good as does the lighting, nice and sharp too. Quality shot, Neil

Andy...

Thanks all!