Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
A common but beautiful bird. Caught him just prior to taking flight.
None I can think of specifically.
Topaz Denoise applied. ISO 2500 is a little high for this camera to handle well. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping.
I am on the west coast of Canada and have never seen this bird! Beautiful! I love its pose, the detail in its head and body and the slight blur in its tail suggests action. The vibrant green is a great juxtaposition to the vibrant blue so I love the colour story too. I find the bottom of the photo, ie the perch and the brown below the leaves, a distraction as they take away from the bird and colour story. I am not sure if the habitat is actually interesting enough to keep. Would you consider a closer crop?
Aw, what a great catch of an always entertaining bird. I see what Robena means about the bright leaves at the bottom - you could lose them no problem. Great diagonal and eye contact in this shot. They are so fun to have around. Unless you’re another species’ nestling that is.
Hi Terry, I find these birds to be very spooky so great job getting a nice capture of one. Nice pose with the blue well shown and rendered. Fine details. My initial thought was the patterns on the stump were rather interesting as I think they are formed by some beetle or something. In any event, I could see eliminating the bright leaves in LLC either by cropping or the remove tool. Nice capture.
Btw, I have the R7 and use DXO Pure Raw 3 to process images up to ISO 2500 and a little beyond and the image quality comes out very well IMO. I think your IQ is really nice here.
Thanks @Robena.Sirett. Every time I post what for me is a photo of a common bird, someone reminds me it is not common everywhere! I want to be careful not to crop it too closely, to give the bird a little room. And I want to be careful not to remove too much more of that interesting stump. But I could, I think, use content aware to get rid of a few of the distractions.
Thanks @Kris_Smith. Yes, they are tyrants; noisy and and terrible bullies. But wow, are they beautiful. I’ll clone those offending leaves out.
Thanks @Allen_Sparks. I agree with your assessment of that stump. I think those patterns are made by some kind of burrowing beetle, but I’ve forgotten the species. I almost removed those leaves before posting, but kind of liked their brightness. No one seems to agree.
DeNoise does a good job on most images. Just trying to mitigate as much noise as I can in camera.
Lighting is perfect for blue jays the blues are nice and vibrant. Cropping off the bottom will help by removing the leaves. Pose is good and the techs are spot on. You could have also posted this in human and fauna as the ash log has been cut and there’s lots of evidence of emerald ash borer damage which show the influence of human activity in the photo. Well done…Jim
I like the detail, color, and pose you have in the Blue Jay. I don’t think you need to crop, I like the leaves above the jay and there’s room for the jay to move into. I could see cloning out the branches and the bright leaf in the lower left area. Like the stump.
Thanks @Jim_Zablotny. Emerald ash borer…I absolutely could not come up with the name. I didn’t think about posting it in human and fauna; good observation.
Thanks @Allen_Brooks. Good observations and comments, as usual.
