# Female Cardinal



## PixelRabbit (Feb 12, 2012)

I've been trying and trying to get a shot of her, unlike her counterpart who loves to strut his stuff, she is very skittish and any motion will send her deep into the tree. 

Well today we didn't have light for long, but she found it reflecting off the snow for me!

Thanks for taking a look 
C&C always welcome




Female Cardinal in the Shade by Judi Smelko, on Flickr


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## davesnothere11 (Feb 12, 2012)

Nice.

A little underexposed? or just  a bit too dark.


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## blackrose89 (Feb 12, 2012)

I actually like the fact it's a but underexposed/dark. I looks like a really pretty Christmas postcard. Looks more like a work of art rather than a typical bird shot!


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## cgipson1 (Feb 12, 2012)

It is not underexposed.. it is a very contrasty exposure! There is a difference!  I would even say it is very well exposed, considering the lighting!


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## davesnothere11 (Feb 12, 2012)

And looking at this again, with my laptop ALL the way open, it looks even better.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks for checking her out you guys


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## pgriz (Feb 13, 2012)

Framing is good,  light is good, exposure is good.  Nice angle.  Your focus is pretty sharp.  If I were to pick a nit, I'd say maybe use a little less DOF, but that's "monday morning quarterbacking", and the fact is that you did a great capture.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 13, 2012)

Lol good Monday morning pgriz *hands you a coffee* 
Thanks!


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## albertaclipper (Feb 13, 2012)

For the type of light you were shooting in it is not underexposed,in fact the light shinning on the cardinal is perfect. Beautifully clear and your right it's the perfect Christmas card. I wouldn't change a thing. Well done.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 13, 2012)

Thanks Alberta


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## dwightdegroff (Feb 13, 2012)

The shot makes me feel Christmas-y(my favorite holiday/season) - so, right off that bat it's a good shot for me. 

I like the exposure, and the focus seems pretty good as well.

My monitor is *not* calibrated, but the white balance seems a little off, a bit of a yellow-ish tint, maybe? (take it with a grain of salt)

Nice picture.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 15, 2012)

Hey Dwight, thanks 
The colour in this one seems to be causing a stir.
The best I can say is that it looks true to how I see her when she is in the tree like that, she really takes on the green from the Cedar.


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## Miladymimi (Feb 15, 2012)

This is beautiful.  I love the feel of it.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 16, 2012)

Thanks Milady


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## Bynx (Feb 16, 2012)

Great shot. I like everything about this, the composition, the colors, the focus, the lighting. I wouldnt change a pixel.


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## bazooka (Feb 16, 2012)

Yet another solid photograph.  You've come a long way.  

I like the comp, I like the light.  The only recommendations I would make are PP adjustments and are completely subjective.

The image has a yellow tone to it.  Also, I feel the bird needs to be separated from the background a bit more, both in color and tone.

Finally, the right and bottom edges have some brighter areas that I would like better if they were more subdued.

Here is a 15 minute edit consisting of curve adjustments and hue/saturation adjustments, a touch of burning on the edge bright brances and dodging on the front edge of the bird.  I also added some sharpening at the end.  I have the psd if you would like it.  Again, this is just my personal preference and I'm just providing it as an alternative to consider and compare.  Feel free to not like it.


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## RebeccaAPhotography (Feb 16, 2012)

Pixel you have come along very nicely. I agree with rose this would be a cool Christmas card! I love it


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## fokker (Feb 16, 2012)

Really nice shot, personally I love the soft lighting look.

Bazooka, I think your edit technically an improvement, the bird pops more and the WB is more 'correct' but I still find myself liking the feel of the original better.


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 17, 2012)

bazooka said:


> Yet another solid photograph.  You've come a long way.
> 
> I like the comp, I like the light.  The only recommendations I would make are PP adjustments and are completely subjective.
> 
> ...



Yay you made it ! I was hoping you would pop in  
I waited a bit to reply because I wanted to ponder your edit (thank you for doing it!)
After a day of going back and making sure I wasn't getting ready to defend my original image because ... well .. I took it! ... I'm going to jump in.

I like mine  I do agree that technically yours shows her colour more accurately to when she is in sunlight and makes her pop more... but...  I also think that it makes it a "mainstream/typical" bird shot , I get a feeling of calm from mine that seems to be missing in the edit and that makes me like mine better.

As you said it is the subjective part of the image, and I like that it is causing the discussion that it is.  I feel like the photo is solid edited either way... in different ways.

This might be a little early in the game (having only started in November) but I feel like my liking the "different" lighting/shots/exposures etc is going to translate into my "style" and that excites me  so I better be prepared to defend my shots 



RebeccaAPhotography said:


> Pixel you have come along very nicely. I agree with rose this would be a cool Christmas card! I love it


 Thank you Rebecca! 


fokker said:


> Really nice shot, personally I love the soft lighting look.
> 
> Bazooka, I think your edit technically an improvement, the bird pops more and the WB is more 'correct' but I still find myself liking the feel of the original better.


Thanks Fokker, your post helped me organize my own thoughts


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## PixelRabbit (Feb 17, 2012)

Bynx said:


> Great shot. I like everything about this, the composition, the colors, the focus, the lighting. I wouldnt change a pixel.


Thanks Bynx!


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## bazooka (Feb 17, 2012)

Honestly I'm glad you have a firm stand with specific reasoning behind it.  When I started out, it was difficult to see what "could be" when all I was looking at was a dull raw file.  I actually think that may be one benefit of starting out shooting both raw and jpg... you can see how the camera would have processed it, which gives you one version of the final image.  You might try to re-create that version with the raw file for practice, or take it in a completely different direction.  But at least you know how incredibly different the raw file looks in the processor and how it *might* come out on the other end.

I can see the appeal of the original.  It is much warmer and less realistic.  It's easier to see it as an art piece instead of a photograph whereas my version is more of a straight photograph as fokker pointed out.


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## TerryDemczuk (Feb 17, 2012)

Great job! I know that those little guys are very skittish so you did an excellent job capturing the moment.  I love the tones and details as well.


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## Joel_W (Feb 17, 2012)

Nicely done. I really like the composition and contrasty lighting.


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## cepwin (Feb 17, 2012)

Lovely!!  I love cardinals...they have there around here too.   Nice work getting a good shot of her!


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## PixelRabbit (Mar 2, 2012)

Thank you Bazooka, Terry, Joel and Cepwin


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