Head Angle Fine Points

And here is image D. Which head angle do you prefer and why?

I'm going with C as numero uno, the head is angled slightly up and toward the viewer and has more light on the face and eye. I also would keep D for two reasons, 1- the bird is intent upon his catch and therefore displaying more behavior, 2- storage is cheap these days

First thanks for the replies above. I also find this exercise to be educational and fun.

In both C and D the head angle seems to be approximately the same. The bodies seems to have similar if not the identical pose also. The difference I see is the tilt of the head. In Image D the head appears to be slightly rotated toward the viewer whereas in Image C the head appears to on a 90% axis (not rotated). The result is that the head in Image C provides a slightly better view of the side of the face. Based on these perceptions I choose Image C as having the better presentation.

BTW, this is a very cool thread! In the time that I have been participating here on BPN (year and a half), the proper head angle capture technique has probably improved my bird photos more than any other technique learned! Thanks Artie and all!!

I prefer image C also. I like the position of the eye better than in image d because the eye in image D is pointing slightly down ward towards the sand. The eye position in image C is more intimate.
Andrew

C would be my choice for two reasons the eye looks better (more open?), and the position of the "mud" at the bottom of the beak looks better than its position on D

Just my personal preference, but I would keep image D. The HA of image D keep the bill tip and the eye more on the same plane than image C.

Artie, C in this case. Better view of the eye. You know I love playing in these ones.

OK, I missed the first one, but in this I will go with C. The head is ever so slightly higher and tilted fractionally away from us. The angle also shows the eye a little more open.

Stuart Bowie said:

OK, I missed the first one, but in this I will go with C. The head is ever so slightly higher and tilted fractionally away from us. The angle also shows the eye a little more open.

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When you say, "The head is ever so slightly higher and tilted fractionally away from us" are you referring to D?

Arthur Morris said:

When you say, "The head is ever so slightly higher and tilted fractionally away from us" are you referring to D?

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No Artie, I mean in C, that the head is tilted slightly higher and tilted away from us. My final answer is still C.

In D, it seems to be lower.

It may bea matter of semantics. Do you agree with this: in C, the bill tip is closer to us than in D?

Hi Artie,

Cool game, sorry I missed the first 3 photo's! I think it is a matter of preference here. I would choose C as a more intimate/contact with the viewer shot because of the HA being slightly tilted towards the viewer compared to the body angle which points towards the viewer but also downwards. For a behavior kind of shot I would go for D. In this one the bird seems more focussed on the prey item and oblivious to the photographer (caused by the head and body angle being in the same plane and pointed towards the viewer but also down towards the prey item) which makes it more of a bahavioral kind of shot IMHO. So what I am getting at is that in my opinion it depends on what kind of a HA you want, one that is perfect technically or one that creates more of a behavioral kind of shot. Just my 2 cents.

Thanks for starting this one up.

Cheers,

Krijn

D, don't like the tilt in the head in C. The bird is engaged in a behaviour so eye contact is not as important IMO.

Neat thread and sorry I missed the first set.
I think in both the head and body angles are in alignment and slightly toward the camera.
For me, it appears in C that the bird has rotated its head slightly to view the photographer and perhaps making it more intimate.
In D the bird has gone back to calmly doing its thing which I prefer.

Dave

As noted above, each image has its strong points. For head angle, C wins by a mile as the head is rotated towards us. With me standing behind the 800 the head of the bird in C is parallel to the back of the camera; in D, it is turned slightly away from the plane of the sensor. Had I been lying down on the beach, D would have had the best head angle as the head would have been parallel to the back of the camera. Yes, with the bill tip closer to the plane of the eye in D, the bill tip is sharper in D. But here, this was the question: "Which head angle do you prefer and why?"

Note: the bird in C was in no way looking at me; birds are constantly changing head positions and angles even when they are resting. Also, this has nothing to do with eye contact but everything to do with the way the light hits the bird's face.

Thanks all for playing. I will try to post another pair when I get back from my walk.

GAME #3

Here is image E.

Here is image F.

Which head angle do you prefer, and why?

In E, the bird seems to be looking off into the distance, with the head angled slightly away. In F, my preferred choice, the head is angled toward me/sensor plane, and seems more engaged with us.

I prefer image E because the HA is parallel or nearly parallel to the sensor plane. Although both images are keepers IMHO, image E is better because of the HA.