Black Swan.

[lhosphotography]

Ive taken into acount some of the advice I received on my Peacock image, It was a great help.

What do you think of this lovely Black Swan..?? Have I nailed this shot..?

Look forward to your comments.

[u666u]

OK I will be the first to critque this. WHAT happened to the background!!

[Mad Aussie]

The background ... is water

Simple composition which works, eye is nice and bright ... I like that.

The photo doesn't appear to be as sharp as it could be. This may be because it's a large image and attached here at ph.ca. Photos over 250 kb in size are automatically compressed which affects the sharpness.

The beak looks too red to me, I think you over-saturated that a bit much.

The feathers down the swans back have a blue cast. It appears that you may have lightened this area too much maybe?

[MoinMoin]

I like the perspective here very much and the ruffeled feathers - but as MA already said: A bit more sharpness would be better.

[Wicked Dark]

I think the water bg is great, but agree that because the subject appears to be the ruffled feathers, they need to be in focus. Feather detail is one of the things that makes good bird photography stand out. For the reasons why I don't do bird photography myself, check this thread -

Captured in 20 minutes - Digital Grin Photography Forum

[Marko]

This is a good shot, and I like it but no nailing here unfortunately...it's way too soft all over to be 'nailed'. I agree on the beak colour - looks oversaturated to my eye. Keep playing though....bird photography is extremely difficult.

[Richard]

I have no experience shooting birds. IMO however this shot would be improved with getting the camera lower to be eye level with the bird, Similar thought to photographing kids?

[lhosphotography]

Thankyou everybody, well, I was pleased with this image until all of your comments...this is a good thing, its made me look deeper into my image and I am able to see its faults when pointed out. Im struggling with the camera settings at the moment! Bird photography is so, so difficult, I spent all of this afternoon photographing blue tits, coal tits, green finches, bull finches and robins in my back yard with a Tamron 70-300 tele macro lens I dont think I have any decent shots to show...im so frustrated!! I will trawl threw them later to see, maybe post the best shots! I need some tips.........

WoW the link MD posted!! Captured in 20 minutes - Digital Grin Photography Forum
fantastic!..thanks for that.

[Mad Aussie]

If you let us know what settings you used we might be able ascertain whether your settings are hindering you or it's a more physical issue.

[lhosphotography]

Oh Thanks MA.

Settings:
Auto WB.
1/200 sec.
ISO 400.
f/9.
44mm focal length.

Pick the bones out of that!
Look forward to hearing your thoughts/sudjestions.