Bobolink

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

D500 500mm @ f 5.6 1/500sec ISO 100 cropped - I couldn’t get any closer (anyone have a 600 f4 for sale :grin:)

Thanks for taking a look and all comments and critiques appreciated.

I try to leave my shots as original as possible, but should I “heal” the dark out of focus streak in the BG?
Thanks for your opinions.

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.!
BOBO2
BOBO21333×2000 389 KB
2

Very nice image, Jay, and yes, I would certainly remove it if this were my image. It doesn’t add any sense of place or anything else and is certainly a distraction. I’d probably also take a little off the top, but that’s just me. For some reason the vertical 4x6 format nearly always feels too tall for my taste.

3

Thanks Dan. I appreciate the feedback.

4

I can see the vertical crop, given the perch, but its a nice look at the Bobolink and the large version shows good detail and I think I’d like to see more of the bird and less perch. May a horizontal crop. And I can see getting rid of the black streak.

5

I could go either way on the dark streak here Jay, I didn’t really notice if when I first looked at the image before I read your description. Nice exposure on a difficult bird, I would take some off the top here as it feels too centered to me.

6

Hi,
I agree with Allen about a horizontal crop or tighten it up by removing some from the bottom and top. Leave the dark streak as is for now…Jim.

7

BOBO3
BOBO31600×2000 467 KB

Thanks for all of the thoughts on this shot. I don’t clone or heal much, so not sure if it looks odd or not, but thought I’d show you all the different versions - I do see a few patches that need a little more work.

Thanks again.

8

BOBO4
BOBO41600×1280 365 KB

9

I like the last image posted because there’s a better look at the bird. I think the more uniformly colored background is better. Nice job.

10

I like the second vertical, you lost some detail in the horizontal crop.
Nice looking bird…

11

I like the second vertical as well. Nice job on the cloning. The horizontal also looks good, but it is a pretty big crop and some loss of detail is starting to show.

12

I agree with the majority here. The revised vertical works well. The horizontal is too much of a crop IMO. Great job on the exposure with a beautiful soft background. You did fine on the cloning as far as I can tell. I’ve only seen these birds once and could never get close enough for a good shot. This one is nice!