Another from my blind a few days ago. I really liked how the ray of light spotlighted the bird in this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t include the entire head, so I had to do some dodging to give it a hand.
In addition to dodging the head and a bit on the breast, I did a lot of cleanup of the rock it’s on. Does it still look OK?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I chose to leave the background dark to keep the focus on the spotlighted area. Does that work?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Sony a6500, FE200-600 @ 600 mm, tripod with ball head and Sidekick mount, f/8, 1/400, iso 1600, manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC as noted above. Cropped to 4440x3032. Taken at 1:47 pm on July 26th.
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Dennis, I love the spotlight on him too. Very nice image of this beautiful bird. Love how he is giving you the look. Great details and color, and the setting looks so natural. Love that you are at eye level with him.
Wonderful intimate photo Dennis. Love the lighting and the darker background. For me, this give the whole image a soft quite feel. Nicely seen and executed.
The dodged shadows look good and the pose is pretty nice too. This would have been a perfect scene for some fill flash, but you did fine without it. Well done…Jim
@Jim_Zablotny. I hadn’t thought about that, but you may be right, Jim. I should probably put a flash on when I have mottled sun like this. In this case, I think it might have made those out of focus foreground leaves on the left a problem, but it’s certainly worth giving a try.
I’ve never tried dodging, Dennis but now you have made me want to learn it and experiment with it. That said, the spotlight on the bird makes it for me.
