Edited with Diane’s suggestions. Brought the whites way down and added a little bit of selective dodging to the bill of the front bird. Maybe I’ve gone too far.
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This image was taken on my recent Yellowstone trip in the early morning before there was harsh light on the river. There were three sets of trumpeter swan pairs along a 5 mile stretch of the Yellowstone River in the Hayden Valley and while you could sit there for hours watching them, they really didn’t do much except preen. Man, do they preen a lot. This pair intersected each other during one the preening sessions and I was fortunate enough to get one photo of the rear swan gazing through the neck loop of the front front swan with nothing protruding beyond the front swans neck and head. This was a long way away with an 800mm lens and a huge crop so image quality is not what you’d expect but decent nonetheless. The background is grass on the far side of the river before light hit it. As always, let me know your thoughts and if there is any way this can be improved and thanks for taking the time to have a look.
Technical Details
Z9, 800mm lens @ F/6.3, ISO 500, 1/1600, hand held, manual exposure
2 Likes
Holy Cow!! What a wonderful pose!!! Detail in the whites on the backs is a little lacking but maybe nothing to do about it. If it’s not salvageable, maybe a crop to square? I could wish for more detail in the dark bill of the front swan, but that’s a small thing.
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Yep, the black bill is a problem on my upload. Not so in LR so I will repost with a little more detail in the front bill and see if there is more detail in the whites as well. Thanks for your keen eye Diane. I appreciate it very much.
I’ve reposted but I’m not sure it’s better or just different. For some reason, there is not a lot of feather detail on the body feathers of this bird. I have a much closer image of it alone and the body feathers just look like they are all bound together. I can post that also for comparison if you’d like. Thanks for your thoughts, Diane.
Beautiful poses and such an interesting composition. Well seen. The repost is a tad gray for my taste for a white bird. Maybe go a bit in between the two?
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Great composition! I feel the brights are good enough, but the bill on the front bird is dark.
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Love the pose you have here and the background is nice. I think the repost shows the bill better. Diane’s idea of a square crop might be worth looking at; so the focus is on the heads and neck.
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Hi David. As others have noted, the poses are so wonderful that something needs to be done to make this image work. Those strangely matted feathers on the back are just a nightmare. If I had another swan with more normal plumage in roughly the same posture, I’d be tempted to steal some texture from the other one. You wouldn’t need much because as others have noted the image is just about the heads and necks so you could crop it pretty tight.
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The black bill didn’t change noticeably, to me – difficult to be sure as the two images are different sizes. The white back feathers did go too grayish. Sometimes there is detail in whites that can be pulled out, sometimes not. If so, revisiting the raw conversion would be the way to dig it out – with Exposure and Highlights, but stopping short of going gray. In that case, it may take a separate conversion for the black bill – added as a layer and masked to the darkest areas. That is easier to pull off (less obvious) than trying two conversions for whites. But you undoubtedly know that. Superb capture at any rate!!
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Oh this is a magical shot! I love swans and love when a very unique image presents itself, and we get it! Super well done!
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Thanks you everyone for you comments on this one. @Diane_Miller . @Dennis_Plank , @Ronald_Murphy , @Allen_Sparks , @Allen_Brooks , @Judi_Hastings .
The feathers have me baffled.
So, I’ll chalk this one up to an interesting pose and move on to the next one. Thanks for all of your help on this. I always appreciate it.
It’s a fantastic wonderful pose! A square crop would work so well!
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Thanks very much, Diane. I’ll keep working it a little bit trying to make the lack of details a little less noticeable. Thanks again!
I really like the comp here, David. Terrific timing. The white feathers may be a little off, but that may be due to them being wet…FWIW, this might make an interesting “Post Processing Challenge” It would be fun trying to tackle this one.
Cheers,
David
Hi. I am have been shooting a local swan here in WA state. I have named her Juliette and I could just, and have, sat with her for hours. I’ve learned so much about swans. I think your picture is beautiful. While I take pix of birds, I’m not what I would call an “avid” birder. I do enjoy them the most in the winter months. We also get sandhill cranes come thru in March, and I also sit and watch them as well. What I like about your photo is the “artistic” look to it, not just a great picture of two swans. When I sit with “my” swan, I watch her for elegant movements or unusual poses…and she can give me a very “coy” look at times. I love to capture it. I also watch the cranes for their fluidity of their movements etc. I think your photo is spot on and a very unique pose and capture. Well done! And, don’t you LOVE Yellowstone in the winter??? I’ve been a few times.
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