LIttle Blue Bird Photo

Photographer’s Note

I saw this little one on a hike up Bishops Peak in San Louis Obispo California. I do not know what this bird is called but she is very beautiful and has a sweet look in her eye.

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AROBN54 (10721) 2009-10-24 20:09

Hi, Mary,
I love bird photos and this caught my attention. We have those bluebirds here in South Carolina and they are very hard to get a good shot of. There are several problems here. First, with only the small bird it could've been much better had it not been so perfectly centered. You will find that in most cases it is best not to put your main subject in the dead center of a shot. Then, too, you had good light and shooting at such a large aperture (f4.3) cost you a great deal of detail and sharpness and caused some over exposure. You could've shot at anywhere from f7 to oh, f14 or 16 and gotten better detail and less OE.It's a beautiful pose you caught and the sky is wonderful, but I couldn't even fix the problems with a workshop. I noticed you used Picasa to edit. There are other editing programs you can download free from the web that do a much better job. Photofiltre, Photoscape, Helicon Filter, Gimp (pretty complicated).

It's a shame, too, because that could've been a really nice shot. Many thanks and kind regards,
Shelly

maloutim (3919) 2009-11-16 14:17

Hi Mary!
I read Shelly's critique and I think she may be right, but I will give you 2 points, because, I have never been able to catch a bird in a good way like that! As soon as I try to catch them, they fly away. Also, for such a photo, you need a zoom, and I do a poor job with that! So all in all, I think you did well!
I reckon the sharpness is not bad at all, and I like the cheeky look in the bird's expression, as if he was saying: See, I am the master of this infinite sky!
Best wishes.
Marie Louise.