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| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Comment |
Hey Rita, sorry for not getting to this earlier. Great composition, IMHO. Very simple. Nice lighting, coming from behind you (generally), and low enough to get under the upper bird's wing. Excellent action, and to the best of my knowledge (I'm my club's PSA Rep), mating birds are acceptable. In fact, you probably get extra points since intra-species action is appreciated. Further, since ND emphasizes story, that's two extra points.
I think you were wise to crop in, and to make it about the birds. I have the feeling that it may have been a bit much though. Resolution looks pretty good on the illuminated portions of the upper bird's wing, but I don't see any texture or detail on the black portions of the same bird (calibrated monitor). I don't see the eyes either. Now, having said this, just like they say in the Guide to Photographers and Judges https://cdn.ymaws.com/psa-photo.site-ym.com/resource/resmgr/pdf/divisions/nd/nd-judges-guide.pdf), "the most important part of a Nature image is the nature story it tells." Given that, and your strong story here, this image might hold a lot of sway. |
Oct 26th |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Reply |
Thank you Boss. The fog really does do wonders doesn't it. It's almost cheating. I keep looking for lone trees that I can rush down to some foggy morning. Gotta be quick though. |
Oct 23rd |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Reply |
Thanks for the kind words Blair. You have a good eye for detail. I'm eager to see your creations soon.
D |
Oct 23rd |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Reply |
Aha! That explains it. Un-intuitive. Super effective though. What light source did you use? I picked up a trio of Dracast LED panel lights, second-hand, a few years ago, and did a million things with them. They were super helpful to start figuring out still life, and different lighting setups. But, they were hard to fit modifiers to, without spending a bunch of money. I'd love to find a 5600K continuous light, for a reasonable price, that should accommodate Bowens mounts. Fill me in... |
Oct 6th |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Reply |
Ooh. Hadn't thought of the leading line thing. You know, sometimes you just like an image. Having said that, I try to be as deliberate as possible instead of merely getting lucky. So, thanks for the kind words, but I didn't earn them on that one like I should have. Then again, as a boss of mine used to say: "better lucky than good." ;) |
Oct 6th |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Reply |
I think you're right about the headspace in the sky. There's more detail on my screen, but then again, that's what you'd expect prior to compressing and exporting. I should have been more conscious of the effects of shrinking the image. Lesson learned (for the 40th time). |
Oct 6th |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Comment |
I see what you did there Dean! Colors seem natural and we get some good color harmony. Symmetry is almost always a winner, when you can find it, so good job. What's supposed to be sharp is, so kudos.
I think I'm going to try a fall colors image, and see what I can get done with color grading, or maybe the Calibration Panel. Good inspiration here. |
Oct 5th |
| 60 |
Oct 23 |
Comment |
Wow. This IS RED! Excellent color harmony IMHO, and that striking red is just killer. I think your depth of field (DoF) works well. I think the parts that need to be in focus are, and are pretty sharp. I think the soft box was a good decision, as it gives a nice, soft pattern, but still has some directionality. I really like the composition too, and think the flower is well-placed in the frame.
Everything macro has challenging DoF issues. I mean that's pretty much why they invented focus stacking. I had an instructor once who would really hold it against you if anything in front of the point of sharpest focus (in this case, the center of the flower) was blurry due to DoF issues. I don't feel that way. I think blurry foregrounds can invite you to look past them, towards the intended subject, just as you've done here. So, Kudos.
Question: You used flash, right? What went into your decision to use 1/4s? Unless I'm trying to get ambient light in the image (which I don't think you were) I use my sync speed when doing studio type stuff. Also, I use an ISO/aperture that, without flash, would give me a black image. What that does is ensure that only my artificial light is creating the exposure, which because of its very short flash duration, also ensures a very sharp image (at least it eliminates camera shake and motion blur). Anyway, I didn't invent that technique, but I do use it and it does work. Just food for thought. |
Oct 5th |
3 comments - 5 replies for Group 60
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3 comments - 5 replies Total
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