The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
The little Red-flanked Bluetail is one of my favorites, but usually pretty shy. Yesterday I came across this handsome male in the forest. He was sitting on a small pillar of stones which our Korean Buddhists often add to on their way up the mountain, saying a prayer as they do so (get me back safely!). As the sun came and went through the trees, he let me get quite close, then hopped onto another pillar, and another, till he’d had enough of saying his prayers, and flew off.
Specific Feedback
The BG was a bit busy, but I’ve tried to smooth it out. I have another shot where you see more pillar, but the bird is too soft for my liking.
Technical Details
D500 + 150-600mm (@600mm) 1/640 f10 ISO 1600
Dealt with Blacks and Whites in LR; Denoise; in PS adjusted Shadows and Highlights. Strong cropping. Cleaned BG with Spot Healing Brush.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
HI Mike, I love the striking colors on the bird set against the neutral surroundings. Background is sufficiently blurred for my taste. Well composed image with the bird on top of the stones and facing into space on the right. Pleasing image.
Sweet indeed! Cute little guy on a wonderful perch! The BG works fine for me, with the bit of blue working well with the bird and the warmth picking up the subdued colors on the rocks. Wonderful capture! I could see maybe darkening the lightest area on the left but not a big deal. Pretty easy with a hand-drawn quick mask (soft-edged brush) and a curves.
Who names these birds? A bright yellow flank and they name it “red-flanked”?
Beautiful bird and a really cool perch, Mike. I like the background. It reminds me of some of the rock abstracts I’ve seen posted on this site.
Thanks @Allen_Brooks@Dennis_Plank@Diane_Miller@Allen_Sparks@linda_mellor for your comments. Dennis, I totally agree, “Red-flanked” is a real misnomer. I’ll submit another misnomer next; maybe Avian needs a sub-category for these, especially the globe-trotting species named after
single countries !
Mike, a lovely image of this beauty. I love the prayerful (!) perch and the vibrant colours, even if the bird is mis-named!
IMO, the BG competes a little too much with the bird, so I’d suggest playing with the BG a little to mute it.
It should be easy to “select” the bird and rocks, inverse, and then darken the BG.
Really neat image!
I’m curious what you did to the BG, as for me it has a strange look. Here is a very simple darkening with a simple Curves (inverse subject selection) then a similar further darkening on the left side with a quick mask to give another selection. Also let the base of the rocks go darker in the first curves. The curves could be finessed a lot but I wanted to see how it looked keeping it very simple. Just a quick-and-dirty to show the idea.
Mike, I’m with Diane - your darkening loooks a bit funky. Not sure what you did.
With a simple and well-defined subject like this, I do a “select subject”, then inverse and darken. I do this with a lot of images to help the subject pop. Sometimes, a bit of clean-up is needed in triangular areas.
I like Diane’s edits as the BG is made more subtle than the other types of edits. The subject is perfect and perhaps, the rock pile perch was an offering to get the perfect shot. remarkable coloration on the bird. A very nice photo…Jim
!
