The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This photograph was taken on a bright cloudless blue-sky day at about 5:00 pm. I had not been able to identify many birds when I noticed a group of swallows preening in some deciduous trees that had yet to leaf out. I maneuvered past them in order to produce this front lighting and also to position the swallow behind a distant tree. I was shooting up, but still able to get isolation of the subject against the background I think.
Specific Feedback
I would appreciate overall critique of the image. Recognizing the dead leaves are distracting and compete, to what extent do they impact the overall image quality? I did remove one of the leaves that extended down and out of the frame. Thanks, John
Technical Details
Camera: Nikon Z9
Lens: Nikkor Z400 f/2.8 TC VRS
Teleconverter: Built in 1.4TC Engaged
Focal Length: 560
In Camera DX Crop Applied: 840mm
Exposure: 1/2500 at f/5.6
I really like the pose and detail, and the lovely BG. The bright area in the LL corner pulls my eye and would be easy to clone out. The leaves don’t bother me as they match some of the coloring on the bird, so are visually integrated nicely. Good move to get rid of one exiting the frame. I think you might consider adding a bit more canvas at the top, but not a big deal.
I see a couple of minor glitches – it looks like you lightened the BG but the selection didn’t get into the areas outlined by the feet, and there is a smudge of the same darker color on the leftmost leaf stem. If those areas are an original BG color, I think I might like it more than the current lighter color… Lovely image in any case!
Thanks Diane. I appreciate your critique. Boy, I missed those glitches. You’ve got a good eye. I find when I mask in Lightroom, I frequently miss how LR might miss smaller areas. And yes, the lower right bright spot could go. Again, thank you.
John, this is a very nice look at this swallow. The dead leaves help fill the frame as they tell us a bit about the time of year. The unlightened background beneath the belly doesn’t show strongly in the smaller versions, but the darkness around the dangling stem pops right out in every view. You’ve captured a nice iridesent glisten along the wing.
Welcome, John. I really like this image. The leaves don’t bother me at all. I too find that any of the automatic selection tools have too large a radius for feathers and other triangular areas. Instead of just using masks, I usually work in PS for that kind of stuff and put the bird or other interesting stuff on separate layers. Then it’s pretty easy to clean up anything extra that got picked up. For my taste, this image could use a bit more space on the top and left as the bird feels a bit crowded to me.
Thanks Dennis. Thanks for your assessment. I was challenged by the crop at the original image included more stems, leaves to the left of the bird, and the dangling leaves under the swallow, forced me into a 4x5. I’ll take another look at it. Thanks again. John
John: A trick I discovered more or less by accident is that after I’ve cropped, it’s almost easier to go back to the crop system and add canvas using the content aware fill in that menu than it is to clean up that extra space. It usually does a pretty good job if you have a reasonably smooth background like you do in this image.
