The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Title courtesy of my wife. At the other end of the settings spectrum from my last post, this one was shot the same morning at iso 12800 and 1/1000.
Specific Feedback
I had a really difficult time making up my mind how to level this image. This is the compromise I settled on, but I’m open to suggestions on that and the crop.
Technical Details
Sony A1, FE 200-600 + 1.4 TC @ 840mm, monopod, f9, 1/1000, iso 12,800,manual exposure. Processed in LR & PS CC. Noise reduction using the LR AI denoise (good, but takes 3 seconds short of forever), with an additional round using Neat Image in PS. This is a very large crop (50+ MP to a tad over 6 MP- 3037x2115) but the duck really needed to be reasonably large in the frame. Image taken December 12th at 9:32 AM under heavily overcast skies.
Hah!! Very cool!! Could also be called “Damn the torpedoes!” Looks like an Olympic swimmer on the way to a gold medal!
I think the crop is fine and from my self-appointed position with the Horizon Police, I think the leveling is fine, too. What registers as “correct” with me is the waves at the top of the frame. The LR corner could be distorted down to level the wake, but I don’t mind it being off as it registers as a V shape, even though you are almost level with it.
I think the cool WB is interesting but wonder about a slight warming for comparison?
Nice shot! I, too, like the crop and leveling as is. While the bubbles ordinarily could use some CW rotation, it would probably cause a problem with the foreground horizontal reflection that would become quite apparent. (If you zoom in the hen’s bill looks like Goofy!)
Hello, Dennis, nice image and point of view, always great when they swim towards you. As to your questions about leveling, I would go for using the black bill tip and its reflection directly below as a point of reference. As shown in the attached screenshot, I would turn the image a little to make sure the black reflection of the bull tip is lined out with the real black tip. Cheers, Hans
Edit: please note that the eyes are now also almost level horizontally , most birds will most of the time (like we do) keep their head a straight as possible …
