The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I found these feathers while walking around Boyd Pond Park recently. What really caught my eye was all the tiny dew drops on the feathers. I got in as close as I could with my macro, and still I wasn’t as close as I would have liked. Though, I did see this nice curve of the feathers through the frame. There seem to maybe be a few different scenes here.
Specific Feedback
I wasn’t sure if the one crop was working, so I decided to do one with a very dramatic crop. Still not sure either option tells the story I was seeing. Maybe an even tighter crop on one set of feathers and dew? Open to ideas on improvements, up to and including, move on to something else.
Technical Details
Canon R
85 mm macro at f/5
ISO 400 at 1/20 sec
Two image focus stack
Patrick, I am sorry I didn’t get to this sooner. Life gets busy sometimes. What a great find! I think I am doing good to find a feather out in nature, much less a group of them and they are covered in dew! Wonderful lines and texture here, and those little dew drops just really add to it. I like the cropped best I think. In the full frame one the feather on the top right is leading my eye out of the frame. I think you have at least a couple of different crops here. If you have enough pixels, I can see a vertical on the right half, maybe cropping some of the bottom off if needed. I certainly wouldn’t “move on to something else”. I’m so glad that you spotted it and had your macro setup with you.
I love this, especially the colors, and also prefer the more cropped version. Just for fun I flipped it and liked that the feathers seemed to be moving now from left to right - but this is in no way meant as an improvement of course! I hope you don’t mind.
Thanks @Shirley_Freeman and @Mike_Friel. Yes, I think there are a few different crops to play with, if I have a little time, I will explore them. And I think I do see what you are saying about a vertical on the right. Mike, interesting idea. I don’t usually flip my images since my mind already “sees” it one way. What’s really interesting about what you did, is the feathers now look like they could be a closeup of them still on the bird. Different context now. Thanks.
Patrick, the mass of tiny dew drops on these feathers is very attractive. Your croped version does emphasize the horizontal grouping nicely. I too can see a possible vertical crop on the right although that does exclude the two most attractive feathers in the bunch. Since there is so much depth, I don’t see an obvious stack, since there doesn’t look to be a good way to figure out where to stop. Mike’s flipped version is, surprisingly, easier to look at…I wonder it that’s our brains trying to make this something growing up from below…
Patrick: A little late to the party but I’ll echo all the praise so far. Mike’s flip is interesting and confirms the cultural bias that those of us in the west have for things “moving” left to right. We read left to right and that pattern gets so ingrained in our brains at an early age that it’s almost impossible to change. Some with dyslexia don’t acquire that natural eye movement and thought connection and as a result do often have significant learning difficulties. OTOH, cultures that read right to left have the opposite biases. With regard to the images themselves and the subjects, great finds and an extremely worthy subject. Well seen, composed, captured and presented. >=))>
Ha, OK you all (@Shirley_Freeman , @Mark_Seaver , @Bill_Fach, @Mike_Friel ), you got me to go back to PS and give this a closer look. First I went for a vertical on the right. Didn’t work. But, a square flipped…Now that’s getting somewhere. Then a tighter crop on the left. When I flipped it, my eye seems to get pulled to the dark area now on the bottom. On the original orientation, I seem to see better how the feathers mingle together. On all I can see the water drops better, too. So, if I ever go back to this, I will need to start with the RAW again. Thanks for a fun experiment.
There is so much here Patrick. Great depth, great subject, and I really like what you and Mike have done with crops and flips. Seems quite acrobatic somehow. . . congratulations on the weekly pick.
