Cape May Warbler

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

CapeMay.jpg
CapeMay.jpg1756Ă—2000 888 KB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Warbler migration is about a week ahead of schedule. Cape May warblers usually show up in the second week of May. Warm spring temperatures have forced trees to leaf out early as well. I photographed this male Cape May warbler at Magee Marsh, Ohio.

Specific Feedback

I bumped up the contrast slightly after applying Levels. How does the image look?

Technical Details

Z9 400mm 200-400mm f4 (1/1600 sec at f6.3, ISO 1600, natural light) Levels, curves crop for comp…Jim

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2

Jim: this is a very appealing subject. The composition is spot on with the bird well placed on a diagonal branch. The bird is sharp and your processing brought out the detail and color in the feathers. I see a bit of a green cast on the lower belly of the bird, but that may be a fault of my monitor.
My only suggestion would be to burn the bright bits behind the bird. Excellent otherwise.

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3

Nice look at this warbler. We might have passed each other on the boardwalk. I was there April 30/May 1. The only Cape May Warbler I saw flew away before I could get it in focus. I found photographing there a bit challenging. But a great experience, nevertheless.

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4

Beautiful image of the bird, Jim, and I like the background as well. Your processing looks spot on to me. It emphasizes the bird very nicely without making it look pasted onto the background.

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5

This is a beautiful image Jim. I really like the composition and the processing looks good to me. I can attest the migration seems to be a week or two early as my wife and I missed most of the warblers in South Texas last week when we were there. There were a few stragglers, but few and far between. Glad you’ve been able to get out and find some in your neck of the woods.

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6

very well done with excellent diagonals. The colors and clarity are superb. Excellent pose And composition. tough birds to catch.

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7

Jim, the colors are fantastic. You really found a perfect spot for this subject with that perch and the surrounding greens.

I’ll disagree slightly with the others re: the composition. I think the crop is a bit loose. You have good texture above (those leaves provide a nice “roof” for the scene, and the texture sort of gets extended from the left side to the top… which follows the directionality of that branch!). But as a result, the bottom and lower right seem a bit empty and featureless. I believe you could tighten it up just a bit—this will also help drop the subject down to the lower third—and help emphasize the bird while improving the balance.

I could go on, as I’d be tempted to crop in a bit from the sides too, but I probably talk about composition too much in my critiques these days, so I’ll leave it at that. :wink:

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