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Initial emotional response and mood
Other Information
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Image Description
Early morning light streaming into the edge of the swamp
Technical Details
Specific Feedback
Emotional
Critique Template
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Beautiful light on this whole scene Steve. Great spotlighting on the anhinga and the log perch. Nice BG to provide the setting. It is almost ethereal. Nice capture.
Initial impression: Wonderful light and a great basking pose, Steve. To my eye the wings and tail look a bit too blue and I think the head is a touch soft. A lovely ethereal image that I think could use just a bit of tweaking.
After reading obscured text: I’d stick with my initial impressions.
My initial emotional reaction is hope, even though the brightest parts are cool. The anahinga looks ready to take off and is looking upward, to the future. The lighting is quite dramatic and adds to the hopeful mood - the light feels strong.
While I agree with the others that the light is strong and blue, as I said I think it adds to the mood. Perhaps if your intent is to make a strictly documentary image, the drama could be dialed back. But if your intent is to convey an emotion, I’d stick with what you’ve done. It’s a striking image!
Thanks, Everyone
As @Bonnie_Lampley remembers from my past post, I am not a birder. I love birds but am not interested in being a documentary. I view my birds as supermodels.
That said, the suggestions here have made a better image.
I’m not sure where the heavy blue came from. The image was made before sunrise, at the end of the blue hour, just as the sun casts its first light.
I sharpened the head and desaturated the blue as much as possible without making it look fake.
Your thoughts
Thanks again; you guys have made my image better.
Steve
@Steve_Rosendahl, the color in your rework is nice. I rather prefer your original crop, though, because of the story it told to me. The tighter crop doesn’t give the anahinga as much room to move which lessens the feeling of uplift/hopefulness for me. If I were going to keep the original crop, I’d probably just burn down the LLC to lessen those sharp features there.
Hi Steve
I would keep the first image, I hand to look up Anhinga and the coloring on these birds is all over the place. Based on the lighting in this shot I would say your model is walking down the runway as a 10.
Peter
I think I prefer the original crop also, Steve. The shift in tones to reduce the blue worked to some extent, but I’m not sure it actually ended up being an improvement. Looking at the images as a whole, I think I prefer your original post. Your explanatoin of where you’re trying to go with your images helps a lot.
Initial reaction is a great pose with the outstretched wings. Nice light. Looks a bit too warm with a bluish look on the wings and too orange saturated on the beak.
After look at the repost, I think I prefer the original crop. The right seems a bit too tight in the repost.
