BG? What BG?

Interesting comparison. The low key night image does nothing for me at all. The high key image is quite a bit better and I'd like to see it larger to give these poor old eyes a chance to evaluate it better. I applaud your experimentation, it's a great way to learn.

Interesting, part of me really likes the dark shadow in the first image under the bird.

I like the high key one a lot more but the dark one is uninteresting to me. Any reason for playing with the extremes in exposure or are you just testing the limits of the medium on a similar subject? I find this an interesting post.

If you have a "local" bird such as this one, and you've expended innumerable shots on him as I have, you naturally want to experiment, for variety, and in the process, learn things that can be carried over to other birds in the future. Nailing the exposure is all fine and good, but if I can't have an elephant charging me as I look through the viewfinder, as Mike Nichols does, I devise other ways to get my kicks.

The dark version does look boring as an electronic image, but when it's printed out on matte paper and mounted on gator board, takes on a whole new appearance and is quite fetching. My daughter is a schoolteacher and reacted by saying she wanted one like this, upon first seeing it on my wall. I gave it to her for her birthday last Friday.

John, interesting shots. Thanks for posting them.

Great comparison Thanks for posting

I like the high key shot. It has a very artsy look especially with the reflection. I like the idea of your experimentation. Thanks for sharing!