I’ve been enjoying shooting birds in our snowy neighborhood lately and here’s a capture I like of an oak titmouse singing in the snow in our backyard. I was tempted to convert it to a black and white image because it’s almost that already but opted to keep what little color it has in place.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I like the mid-chirp pose and environment. I’m wondering if the cropping’s about right.
Technical Details
Z9, Nikon 200-500 lens, monopod, 1/200th, f 8.0, 750mm, ISO 450, cropped to 2547 x 2730
Dave, this is so beautiful. Perfect timing to catch the chirping. I like the simple two tones of white snow and browns of the branches and bird. As for cropping I think I’d place the bird a little lower and to the right. This would also minimize the dark green tones in the lower right corner. But man, what a beauty of an image!
I agree with Mark - this is a winner! The pose and action are so captivating. Plus there’s all that lovely fresh snow. I could see opening the exposure on the bird itself just a hair. Not sure the crop couldn’t be better, but I’d have to play with it. You don’t need to go tighter and the bg is sufficiently blurry to let the sharpness in the bird really stand out. Very cute and engaging.
A very nice image. The snowy environment adds a lot to the image.
I like the composition and the crop.
I think it is underexposed by nearly a full stop. The bright whites of the snow and the reasonably bright background would easily fool the meter into underexposure.
Here’s a version with a mask on the bird and raised the exposure by .8, and a levels adjustment to bring the white point into where the histogram ended.
I love this photo (and appreciate Keith’s adjustments to make bird brighter). I do think cropping out the bottom of the frame may be beneficial. A small and familiar bird in the snow is such a great story…shows their resilience.
Terrific shot Dave. The bird is tack sharp with a great head turn and beak open. What more could you ask for? Maybe some snow on the branches?? Done! Maybe a nice blurred background?? Done!
I would, as @Mark_Muller suggested, move the bird to the right if you have the canvas to do that and I would also select those green spots in the lower right corner and desaturate them and maybe even lighten them so they are not so obvious.
