I went out this morning to deliberately shoot some backlit birds. I have a place where I can get them with the sun on them and a dark background-those shots didn’t happen today. However, I liked this Siskin against a mostly sky, partially tree-top background because of the way the light came through the head feathers.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything. I just did a little bit of playing with the lighting to bring the bird up a bit and increase contrast in the feathers.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Anything.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
7DII, Sigma 150-600 C @ 484 mm, f/20, 1/400, iso 1600 (I’d been shooting a group of birds and was hoping to get them all in focus when this one popped up right in front of me. With the distant background, I just left the settings the way they were). Processed in LR & PS CC. Cropped from the right. Full height. Taken at 8:11 this morning.
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I like the Bokeh of the background light Dennis. The lit up outline feathers of the bird are also very nice. Only one suggestion would be to crop a little on the left to remove some of the darker areas.
I’m always amazed at how “nature” seems to know a photog’s goals and do it’s best to thwart them… The siskin looks good, with good visibility in the shadow areas and a nice glow on the head. The bokeh of the sky and trees looks good also. The bird is quite fuzzy, it this possibly a youngster or had it just bathed?
Very nice capture, Dennis! Good detail in the shaded portion, including the eye and I also like the back-lit feathers. We have a lot of Pine Siskins here and this one definitely appears to be a baby. Either that or it just came from a bird bath or a rain storm 
@Mark_Seaver, @Gary_Minish Definitely no rainstorm. Might have been in the bath-the perch is just above one of our bird baths. I’d bet on it being a youngster. We had an irruption of Siskins this year and we have youngsters coming out our ears.
Dennis,
Great job making use of the lighting situation and recognizing the back lighting potential. Like Eva, love the bg bokeh. The character of thls little guy(?) is great and the ruffled feathers make me relate to how one might feel just rolling out of bed in the morning…
Lon
