|
| Group |
Round |
C/R |
Comment |
Date |
Image |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
Thinking more about LC's suggestion of a dark background, there is a way to invert and turn the white background into black. It's too long to post here, but if you are interested, let me know and I will email you with the directions which come from Harold Davis, who is known for his crative flower photogrpahy. |
Feb 21st |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
Great idea, Mike. Thank you. I think the graduated fog will add to the "story." |
Feb 21st |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Reply |
I don't think the bird is behind the flowers. I think the body is almost a "C" curve and the feet are hidden behind the spread of the tail, but it is in front of the flower. If it was behind the flower it would be out of focus just as the flower is due to the shallow depth of field with the wide open aperture. |
Feb 11th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Reply |
I think shutter speed depends on whether you like stop action or the soft silky look of water. I prefer the soft look because it seems more artistic to me, but many photographers do not like it, so it is up to you. I believe that when you use the fast shutter speed you inevitably get some areas with lack of detail in them. You did not indicate that you used a polarizer, but that may have helped some. I like the new crop without the sky in it. |
Feb 11th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Reply |
I recently viewed part one of a series of webinars that Rick Cloran is doind on judging nature images, so I am going to base my commnets on what I have learned fro him so far. I think the natue story is strong since you have two individuals interacting. Both individuals are in sharp focus and the eyes are not only sharp but have the catch light (I would expect no less from you!!!). If the sugar water was placed there by you or someone else, I believe it would violate the PSA Statement on Subject Matter as it is "baited." But who would ever know that? Composition the weakest area in my opinon. The bird on the right appears to be impaled on the flower. Nevertheless, you are still my hero when it comews to BIF :) |
Feb 10th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
Judith, this is a Cherry blossom, not a Dogwood, athough in your area they likely bloom at about the same time. Compositionally, I like the soft diagonal you achieved annd the overexosed sky works very well in my opinon. I would suggeston cloning out the OOF blossoms at the top as well as the curved twig just below the branch on the right. |
Feb 10th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
It is a lot of fun when we find a gem in our cataglogue that we have previously overlooked. I think you have a one here. I took the liberty of working on it a bit more...I hope you do not mind. First I adjusted the whites making sure not to blow them out. Then I used teh tone curve to decrease highlights and open the shadows a bit. I selected the eye and brightened and sharpened it. I increased saturation on the whole image and cropped it to an 8X10. To me, this is a very nice nature portrait. I do not think any of the adjustments I made would violate the Nature guidelines. What do you think? |
Feb 10th |
 |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
I feel that this image has a lot of potential, but is still a work in porgress. I hope you will not mind that I put it into LR and did some more editing, which I will try to summarize for you:
First, I set the white and black points to be sure that there was data all across the histogram. In the HSL Panel I moved the green hue slider a tiny bit to the right to make the trees more green and increased the saturation. Using the masks in LR I selected the foreground and adjusted the WB to warm it up and tried to lighten the shadows a bit. Then I selected the sky and added clarity. Finally I cropped some on the right. There is still a tiny halo along the horizan which sould be removed using the clone tool on darken in PS. Take a look and see what you think. |
Feb 10th |
 |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
I know these Harriers are not easy to capture regardless of how good our focusing systems are, so nice work. The birds is sharp and the background is nicely blurred but still gives me a sense of teh environment. I agree with Lisa about the OOF grass at the bottom. In my opinon the tonality of the bird and the upper backgroiund are so similar that somethinnng needs to be done to separate the subject more. I would lean in favor of brightening the bird if that can be done without blowing out whites and/or losing detail. |
Feb 10th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
Lisa, you are correct about the angle; however I would have had to move not only to the right but forward which would not be possible because the shoreline was straight to the right. So the angle would not have changed. Birds always take off into the wind, so the flight path was also fixed. Sometimes we have to make the best of what nature gives us I guess. |
Feb 10th |
| 52 |
Feb 23 |
Comment |
This image gives me a sense of the power of the raging water - and I feel it is very cold! I think the color of the water appears natural and I like the perspective you chose which creates those soft diagonal lines. The shutter speed you chose created a "stop action" effect. Because the water is moveing so fast this results in some areas that have little or no detail. I don't think they are blown out, necessarily, just a result of the movement. In my opinion, the sliver of sky at the top does not add to the story, especially becasue it is a flat blue without detail. For me, the story is about the water so I would crop some from the top. See my visual feedback. |
Feb 8th |
 |
8 comments - 3 replies for Group 52
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8 comments - 3 replies Total
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