Lend me a hand please?

[Miaow]

We have some crazy cockies here lol

[Ian Brewster]

Hi Cathy,

An intriguing capture - they're amusing birds.

I would crop off the RHS to just past the first bit of foliage and a bit more than that from the LHS to better draw the viewer in to the subject. The I would brighten up the actual bird some 3 or 4 stops so you can see the detail: by Dodging; or sliding the Middle (gamma) Levels slider left to a value of about 2.5 if you don't mind lightening the foliage too; playing with the Shadows/Highlights Adjustment. Hope this is a useful "hand"?

Ian

[photomike666]

Agreed the exposure is off.

As above lightening the image will bring the bird out, but you may also blow out the sky. If you can mask the sky and bring everything else up a bit.

For next time, use spot meter on the subject to correctly expose the image. Try bracketing, 1 stop over & 1 stop under (3 shots in all) to get the best exposure.

The reason the foreground is dark is your meter takes an average of the whole scene, it can not compensate the the bright background. Spot metering takes a reading from just 1 small area, usually the centre of the picture

[Mark L]

"Lend me a hand please? " Pretty sure Cathy is referring to the bird.
It's an unusual pose for a cocky.
Nearly a nice photo!

[Miaow]

Yep Mark I was refering to the bird (as in it saying it ) I know the pic's pretty bad photo wise hence why its in not for Critque lol

[Mary Anne]

Good one Cat I love the antics on these Birds..

[ameerat42]

Not a very convincing effort putting it into "Not For Critique", eh Miaow?

Yes, they can be amusing, but I generally and liberally detest (won't say h-8) them for their destructiveness and their banshee screeching 2m above your head in the backyard
Am.

[Miaow]

Actually amerrat down here they arent too destructive i spose thats cause they have such a wide area etc - we all feed them - one the other day actually let me get within like 1/4 a foot from him moving slowly etc - i slowly went to touch it but could see a possibly bite lol so stopped lol
Some days see like 20 out at the feeder - Corellas are noisier and more of them when they descend

[Ezookiel]

My wife's uncle has 2000 hectares down South. When he puts out feed for his sheep, flocks of over 2,000 of these little sods swoop down and devour massive amounts of his hard paid for feed.
In my yard I have a half dozen fruit trees. I don't mind sharing the fruit with the birds, as I love birds coming to the yard, but these little sods take a single bite from each Japanese Plum, and then leave the rest, or drop the remainder. THAT peeves me REAL fast !!!! It will get to the point that I'm going to net the trees to stop them, and then put some out for them myself.
They are amusing to watch though.

[photomike666]

Sorry, didn't realize it was not for critique. I was reading the forum on taptalk & I only saw a new post, not what topic it was under.

[Miaow]

Photmike its ok dont need to appologise lol and Ezokiel yeah can imagine they'd cause a lot of problems eating all the stock food

[vharperv]

I also really dislike these rats of the sky mostly because they wreck our macadamia and pecan nut trees. howeve they make great photographic models and great practice for trying to get perfect exposure.