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Normally I don’t shoot birds with anything artificial in the frame, but this little one was so cute bathing I couldn’t resist. A tight crop (to 18% of the full frame) eliminated most of the bird bath. Canon 1DX2, Canon 600mm f/4, f/11, 1/400, ISO 1600. No adjustments in the raw file; into PS for denoise (barely needed) and cleaning up 2 small spots in the water and a couple of sensor spots.
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This species does seem to love its baths, Diane. Beautiful exposure and detail and a great head turn. It must have just gotten started-they seem to manage to get very wet before long. I think you could loosen up the crop a little as long as you already have the bath in the image.
Diane: very cute bird and you’ve captured excellent detail. My only suggestion would be to loosen up the crop to include all of the bird’s tail. Richard
Hi Diane,
I was immediately drawn to this photo on the page of critiques. I love the softness of the feathers that comes through the sharpness of their lines. You even captured the tiny drops of water on his head. So cute and peaceful. I agree with getting the tail feathers into the crop.
Ann Louise
Thanks everyone! Part of the reason for the tight crop was that the bird bath is not quite level – now fixed. But I was able to conceal it (I hope) with some partial opacity cloning to the right of the bird. I also corrected the white balance. It was a smoky morning and I assumed the pinkish cast on the white feathers near the tail was because of the color of the terracotta dish. But neutralizing it gave a more neutral gray on the head, which would be accurate. I’m not sure which version I like – this takes a little attention away from the pattern of the feathers but adds the large droplet on the tail.
I agree that, since it’s clear the bird is in the bird bath, you don’t have to crop so much. Therefore I prefer your second post. I would even go further than that and include more of the reflection if you have it in your frame. Apart from that, a nice pose of the bird and a sharp shot.
Grt, Ingrid.
No more reflection, sadly. I should lower the bath so I have a little more room to catch one, although it’s probably rare a bird would sit still long enough to have a nice one. But worth a try. But including the bath makes it a very different image. Now it’s a bird in a dish. The tight crop of the first makes it all about the feather pattern and detail. That might be one for even a tighter crop.
