Any feedback on these Images would be appreciated

Any comments on these images would be appreciated.

Here is a bit of feedback. I think in all three shots they would look better if you pulled the highlights down a bit. (Or perhaps shot with a polarizer).

I'm a newbie myself, so I'll let the experienced folk provide photographic feedback. Just to say that I really like them, #2 and #3 especially.

The first image is very noisy and your subject could be on a nicer purch. I like the diagonal of the purch and the great sharpness.

The owl in flight is very sharp and well exposed with a nice background. You might want to remove the post under it.

The eagle is well photographed. It appears to be a captive eagle as it's head feathers are turning dark and it's beak immaculate. Eagles's white features turn dark at about age 40, and that's as old as they live in the wild. I'd guess that this eagle is about 45 years old. As eagles start off with dark feathers and they turn light after a few years I could be wrong yet the beak without a scratch makes me think that this bird has had a very easy life. I like your photo and feel it's important to be open about photographing captive birds. Please accept my apology if I'm wrong.

Morris

Sparrow - Yeah..try and reduce the highlights. Also, as this bird is static, think about dropping the shutter speed in the future to get that ISO reduced.

Owl - You've set the shutter speed correctly but due to the available light the ISO is pretty high causing the noise. Don't know what lens you have but I'd open the aperture. (though it could be at its widest) You could drop the shutter speed a bit on a bird this big and still freeze it appropriately.

The biggest problem I have with this one is you've gone overboard smoothing out the background to reduce the noise. When magnified on my screen, the BG is too smooth and noise free compared to the post and bird. I'd try to achieve a better balance so it doesn't look so unnatural and the owl doesn't look cut out along the edges. When you cut out the foreground be careful. It looks a bit messy around the talons and there is a background spot covering the tail feathers.

For an alternate take on this shot, perhaps clone out the post and crop tighter on the owl.

Eagle - Nice and sharp. Perhaps a bit more brightness. Work on the eye and surrounding area to draw attention to it.

Thanks for the feedback. these were taken with a tamron 100-400 f4.5-6.3 so I can't open the aperture any wider.

Vaughan de Grave said:

Thanks for the feedback. these were taken with a tamron 100-400 f4.5-6.3 so I can't open the aperture any wider.

Click to expand...

Interested to know what look or outcome you wanted.

There's many ways to shoot birds, and knowing what your vision for outcome is would be helpful to narrow down the options or tips.

You've done a good job on the capture and focus. The backgrounds seem really busy to me and the greens especially seem oversaturated.

i like those shots! one thing we have to remember that birds will not pose for us where we want them, just like human models, or give time to get ourselves ready for shooting! but we do need to check the environment, lighting condition and make sue we adjust our camera for ambient light, shutter speed, iso and so on before we proceed with shooting.

the position of the bird in shot #1 is not very ideal, you can't see the eyes! the owl shot is not composed as it should have been, considering the unpredictability their flight. i hope you continued shooting while the owl was getting closer to you so you had a chance to compose a better shot of it. the eagle looks cool, whether in captivity or in the wild, it is still the same bird. although it makes it a lot easier if shot in captivity ;-) keep up the good work!

--
You miss 100 percent of the shots you didn't take!!! "Wayne Gretzky"

The eagle was no doubt your best image. I like the regal composition. Along with what others have said, the easiest way to make wildlife photos more interesting and professional looking, is to shoot during the "golden hours" of the day, when the light is warm and more diffuse. Most seasoned pros will tell you that mid-day is for napping!

ToxicTabasco said:

Vaughan de Grave said:

Thanks for the feedback. these were taken with a tamron 100-400 f4.5-6.3 so I can't open the aperture any wider.

Click to expand...

Interested to know what look or outcome you wanted.

There's many ways to shoot birds, and knowing what your vision for outcome is would be helpful to narrow down the options or tips.

Click to expand...

I think that this is the key question.

Were you just testing out new gear, are you just getting started in bird photography or did you have a particular reason for taking/posting these particular images?

In my opinion the first photo need the exposure and highlights lowered. Second photo could have the highlights dropped just a bit. All three need to have the greens desaturated.

My taste is to have more subtle greens in my background. I feel it doesn't compete with the subject as much as a bright oversaturated green background.

The Owl and Eagle are Very nice.

Thanks for sharing

Ryan