(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Wonderful bird and perch, with nice tonalities and colors, but I wish the beak was not concealed at the edge of the branch. We get what we’re given, but any chance you got a few other poses?
What a great perch for this woodpecker. As stated by Diane the only wish would be that the beak and branch did not intersect. Colorful, natural setting and subject. Very nice image.
Hi John
Nice looking Red bellied Woodpecker. The frame is great, along with the detail and coloring. As for the beak, maybe you could try bring up the exposer on the head and beak only and that should help separate the beak from the background. Nice work.
Peter
Yes it is too bad about that overlap of the beak but is is still a very nice photo. I really like the perch and background. Also nice detail in the woodpecker.
Very good job on the detail and plumage. The setting with the diagonal branch and the berries works for me up until the curve at the left-hand side of the image. I don’t know if this is a set up or not. The issue for me is the branch not only covering the beak but the right hand side of the branch coming out of the head of the bird. With some very careful cloning, you could remove the branch and have the left-hand side of the frame intersect the diagonal part of the branch. That I think is worth saving if you have those skills.
![054A9930-Edit 2-1 8x6|434x500] Repost Thanks to all, the repost adds dark liner around the beak to highlight the actual beak plus a second post to see how a headturn would look. Sorry, I will repost the picture with the beak liner. Wayne(upload://iy8OKOuRQ9M05PP7gzbYUbFOmfb.jpeg)
It’s a bummer about the head position in the first shot because otherwise it’s a great look at the plumage and the curved branch and berries are interesting.
But I do prefer the second shot, since the subject is clear of most of the distractions. I wouldn’t even bother keeping the few berries in the corner (another distraction now, could be cropped off the bottom), and because the bird is looking to the upper right corner, I’d also crop off the left a bit so the eye follows the curved line of branch and bird without getting pulled off to the side.
Max
I really like the perch. Frankly, it was what caught my attention initially. The woodpecker shows some good detail and the red head works well with the red berries. Ideally, the woodpecker would have given you a slight head turn towards the viewer. I wonder how it would work to do some dodging and burning to branch and beak to create more contrast? Also, the background colors are quite nice. Overall, this is a very pleasing composition. Well done.
Thanks Allen, I will try to work with some dodging and burning to allow more separation of the subjects.
