Hello, I've been concentrating this year on improving my skills shooting wild birds. I've been selected for a month long show next spring to display a selection of the birds native to Utah. The exhibit photo's will also be for sale, something I have not done in around 15 years. I'd like some honest critiques of the images in my bird gallery. Please concentrate on the ones shown as being taken with the Minolta 7D as the others will not make decent prints. I will be making various size prints using an Epson R1800 printer. Since the work will be framed my understanding is that luster paper will be the best for the color images. Fortunately I still have several months to improve my meager photoshop skills! Anyway, honest views of the images would be greatly appreciated. You can see the images here My Bird Gallery

Jim,
Christ you got 144 photos on that site:) I think you’d get a better response if you asked us to critique one or maybe two at a time. Why don’t you pick out a few and post one at a time. I am sure the comments will overlap into your other work too. I would pick a couple of your best, and ones with something missing that you can’t figure out.
I have scanned through and you have some excellent work there. I picked on this one to start.



Beautiful bird, and a great pose. The lighting is great as is your exposure. I wish the background was darker, but that's ok. I love the grass fronds, that is the birds habitat and you captured him in it! I would probably crop about a fifth off the left side of the frame, and some off the top keeping the 3:2 ration. That would also put the bird off center with him looking into the majority of the frame. You have some very good detail in there, and the catch light in the eye is perfect. At this resolution the birds head looks very sharp and that’s great. I don’t know what size you will print, and this is a low res image, so I can’t comment on the end result.

I didn't look at all of them ... I thought the shots of the meadowlarks were pretty good. Here are some critiques on the rest:

there were quite a few butt shots of birds. Generally this is considered a no-no in today's world of bird photography. Two examples here are your shots of the short-eared own in flight.

I found the background very distracting on many of the shots. GBH#2, Egret#2 are examples here. Try and make sure that you don't have any white, bright hot spots in the background. They cause the eye to zero in on them and not your subject. It kills an otherwise good shot.

Lastly, the fifth GBH shot seemed soft ... not as sharply focused as it should be. If you have a soft shot and still want to display it, move it off by itself cause its softness will stand out. Best not to use it at all unless it is portraying something very unique.

I hope this helps.

Adam, thanks! I actually do need to seperate the quality shots from the ones there just for family/friends to see. I also share shots locally with several local birding organizations for identification purposes.

Hi James,

Welcome aboard. I checked out your gallery at some length today. I agree with Jeff that it is typically easier to ask for critique on individual images as opposed to a gallery as large as you presented. However, that is not to say that it cannot be done, LOL.

OK. I think that instead of focusing on what I don't like, it is easier to talk about the things I DO like.

On Page 1, I like the larks the most. Nice colors, well exposed, and no distracting backgrounds (though there were a few times where things could have been more level). I also like the flying night heron.

On Page 2, I like the Great Blue Heron at Bear River Refuge (though again, there appears to be a leveling issue).

Page 3, I like the burrowing owl on the first row, and the short eared owl flying (the first one, where it appears above you).

Page 4: I like the Canadian Goose photo a lot. Nice perspective.

Page 5: I think the Yellow Headed Black Bird is very nice - though you are pushing the edges a bit with the exposure. It looks like some of the yellow is a tad hot to me. The Osprey flying is also quite nice.

Page 7: I like the Franklin's Gull shot...though you may want to consider trying a bit of shadow-highlights to bring out the shadows a bit.

Page 8: I like the house finches...particularly the ones without the distracting backgrounds.

Page 10: The morning dove photos are nice. I see many of them here in the City.

Page 12: Whatever the bird that is 'by popular request' is a nice photo.

So, in short, what I am looking for. (1) Clear, well exposed subjects. (2) No distracting backgrounds. (3) Depending on the bird, I don't mind necessarilly that photos capture it's backside...however, I prefer frontal photos.

Thanks for sharing!
James

Thanks James, I too prefer the clean backgrounds but have to deal with what they give me sometimes. The Franklin Gulls are hard for me to get looking right as are the Black necked Stilts. My photoshop skills are quite meager right now and some birds are more difficult than others for me to get right. Can you elaborate on the levels comments. I sometimes find the images too flat but am not sure how to clean them up better without blowing out the hightlights. I've been trying to locate a local source for some photoshop classes but have had no luck so far. I shoot in RAW and I feel my limited post processing skills are not allowing me to get the best out of my images. I do appreciate everyone's comments.

Hi Jim

I often think people who can get the clear uncluttered backgrounds are just plain lucky.Often when I am out in the wild (forest, heavy bush etc) and trying to capture birds I dont have much choice. I would rather get the shot with foliage/branches/backgrounds etc than miss the
shot altogether. And even taking the time to reposition one self in hope of a 'better' background risks scaring the spooky/shy birds away.

In my wildlife shots I would prefer to use photoshop as
a last resort, rather than a crutch.

I like your range of shots, even the "butt" shots (I didn't even know that butt shots were considered a no-no, I have lots of them myself).

Are you restricted in how many pieces (different images) you can submit for the exhibition? If you do that might help us also narrow it down and maybe offer some further
guidance?

Wow good picture. I like it and I do not see anything wrong with it. I have some I took but that picture is amazing. What kind of camera are you using>? SLR digital? or film?
here is a good bird picture. Its of the north American Bear bird lol (joking) but cute I took this at a park by the Rushmore monument

where is the photo i tagged?? how do i put a photo on here?

nice bird gallery!!!!! great pictures.