Robin

Anyone that has seen my pictures will know I don't usually do nature stuff including birds. But there I was in the garden today with teh robin and a blackbird taking interest in what I was doing. The blackbird was after the apple and cheese that found it's way to the lawn too. So nipped off for the camera...

Happy to get C&C on this as birds are not my usual thing... (resized down to 800x? for upload to Photobucket)

BC

Hope you don't mind me saying but it looks a little too much post processing to have that "natural look". Hard to describe but maybe a little more "relaxed"(softer) picture of the Robin and not so" rigid and formal" would improve it. But what do I know.

Did you use a flashgun? only the light seems to be comming from one direction , not as natural daylight as you say the picture was taken today in the garden.

Here is my effort without any editing but I could easily have sharpened it a litttle but that is not what I saw.



Just as an example, but maybe you can see the difference, as a comparison.

Just a quick tip, it is very rare to see a bird in sharp detail due to the wind disturbing the feathers or what they are doing at the time. Also as they are always moving doesn't help, so quite often a softer image actually looks more natural.

Bazza

Bazza

Thanks Bazza, it's sharpened a little in PP but it's sharp on the 70-300 VR. The lens can only photograph what is there and in focus and can't make something sharper than it is naturally. The light is natural, tea-time sunlight, saturation is turned up a little in jpg on the D300, and just vignetted the edges on this image in PP.

However, happy to hear your point, and see your nice robin pic - mine looks a little underfed compared to yours

PS. On refection I do think maybe the vignetting is not as subtle as intended so that maybe makes it look a little unnatural.

Nothing wrong with the bird for me, lovely and sharp. Robins do have quite "sharp" look to their feathers and can sometimes this can be mistaken for over shaprened pics. Colour is spot on for that later afternoon light that makes everything so pretty

Have you tried a slightly different crop with a little off the top and right?

BC

Wild life photography I think is one of the hardest forms of photography there is. You can never be "ready" to take a picture pre planned, it has to be on a " when you are in the right place at the right time" basis.

More often than not you will not get sighting of what you want to take- its too far away- moving away from you -camera settings wrong-weather condition turn against you- or even can't get to a position to take a reasonable photo,and if you have all that in place there is little time to get the picture you want.
So even to get a photo of a Robin,and can do any of those things in a moments notice is an achievement. I hate to think of the ratio of bad bird photos to good ones I take.

Well done on that score

Stan I think we will have to agree to disagree about sharpness, maybe its like a lot of things, its in the eye of the beholder. The outline of a bird can never be sharp as in a building because the feathers overlap causing an uneven edge

Bazza

Nice shot BC, I'd agree with Ste about the crop and PP
Bazza that's a nice shot too

Mmm to me Bc's shot look great, and sharp, whereas Bazzas looks a little soft in comparison, sorry Bazza.

I like the light in Stu's shot, looks like "Golden Hour" lighting to me , late afternoon. The only thing I would change is maybe crop some of the bright yellow from the top

Different photographers have different stylesxx

I love it - especially the little petals

xx