Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
I got this guy taking off with some pretty nearby background. I liked the moment, though.
Should I try to diminish, or replace the BG or just live with it? Cropping okay?
Z9, 180-600 lens, 1/3200th, Nikon 1.4 TC, f 9.0, handheld, 280mm, ISO 7200, cropped to 6042 x 4471
The crop looks fine, Dave, and I like the take-off pose. The background isn’t all that bad. You could blur it a bit or darken it a little to make it less intrusive, but the dead plants in the upper half are so dense that they basically make a texture.
Hey Dave, I’m not sure how much can be done with the background since it’s so close but I don’t actually mind the twigs, it’s the grass below that draw the attention so Maybe a black and white conversion??? Not sure how that would look or maybe even a B&W conversion just for the background??? Throwing darts here. 
As for the bird, you captured a great take off position in the wings the feet and the head. I would try shooting wide open next time to try and blur that background out as much as possible. F/9 is rendering everything sharp. Also, you could probably get a sharp image at 1/1200 or 1/1600 of a second allowing you to reduce your ISO by half or more from your current 7200. I’m pretty sure you already know all of this but I thought I might bring it up all the same. Cheers
Hi Dave, I like the take off pose. Good wing position on the far wing. Head looks nicely sharp to me but the detail in the neck and far wing seems a bit smudgy to me like heavy noise reduction has been used. Nice catch.
Nice takeoff shot. I don’t mind the environmental aspect, though I suppose you could try darkening the background and see how that looks.
