what is wrong

[billy320]

This picture was cropped a little, what is wrong with it ?

[TracerNH]

It looks like the photo was taken in harsh light which doesn't bring out the details in the bird's feathers.

A larger aperature would help separate the bird from the background and I think the photo would be more dramatic if the bird wasn't placed in the center of the frame.

Chris

[vmlopes]

It also looks to my untrained eye, that the focus is slightly on the rocks in front of the bird, agree with the above also

[billy320]

Thanks

It was taken in a canyon in valley of fire sp in nevada

[Frog]

Yup! Centered subject and out of focus in bad light about covers it.
On the other hand its an interesting subject in good pose and in a dramatic setting.
If you cropped any from the right, you can put that back which will un-center the subject and have it looking into the frame. If you shot in raw or even if you didn't, you could do some adjustments to light and color but I don't think the focus can be rescued.

[A.M.D.A.]

I think you did a pretty good job photographing a rock wren which does not like to sit still for long.

I agree with the others about the lighting, focus point and centered subject.

Crop some off the left, and if you still have many pixels, zero in on the bird more. UnSharp Mask and Sharpen should help lift the quality. Maybe a slight contrast boost as well, since the human eye often interprets high contrast as sharpness.

[SmartWombat]

The background has a lot of noise in the shadow.
I can't tell which of your 4 cameras and 8 lenses you used, because there's no EXIF data in the image.
Maybe it was a P&S camera, or you had the ISO turned up higher than necessary.

There's red colour fringing on the edge of the shadow, and as has been pointed out already focus seems a little off.


paulnj says my bird is a Rock Wren too...
Loud - but what is it?
I have the advantage of a Canon L prime lens, though I ruin it a bit with the 1.4x converter.


Alex: I disagree on not sitting still. My shots were taken over about 15 minutes, and the bird stayed still for several minutes at a time - moving about a small area only about 25 yards.

Chris: I don't think a larger aperture will help, the background is already out of focus - it would help more if the bird was in focus. Or perhaps this is at the limit of resolution.

Frog: Mine were taken in very similar light, near lake Mead, so it's not the light.

All mine were cropped to about 1/4 frame off the 1DmkIIN, so I had the option to re-frame and compose the image. I shot with centred subject so I could use the centre AF point which I find is fastest and most accurate.