The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Ever get a photo which you think has potential…but it needs a a lot of playing around with in your software? Maybe that alone should have told me it didn’t have potential…but I beavered away at this one anyway. The problem was, as often, the pretty awful background. But I thought the behavior was interesting, so I’ve added it for that reason. I think they are White-tailed Skimmers. The dominant one is a female (the male is grey), while the loser here is immature. Hope you don’t find this too unpleasant, it’s nature. “They” flew off after about 10 seconds.
Specific Feedback
The background was obscuring the activity a lot, and I ended up adding that vignette to show the scene better. I don’t normally like vignettes, but maybe it helps here?
Technical Details
OM1 + 60mm macro 1/320 f13 ISO 400
In LR darkened the BG with the adjustment brush. In PS highlighted the insects with Nik Viveza. Cropped in close. Back in LR added a vignette. (I have an old version of PS -CS6 - so couldn’t do anything like “Background Removal”. I tried selecting the insects so I could blur the BG, but the selection was too complicated).
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Mike: I think this is a terrific image. The tight pano crop with the wings of the dominant DF filling the frame is just right. Whatever you did with the BG looks pretty darn good to me. Great capture of a unique moment. >=))>
Mike, this is a fine “behavior” view, where your pano crop fits the action well. The fact that it’s cannibalism adds to the drama and the story shown. The sharpness of the preyp’s wing structure is striking.
This is a great behaviour image showing how tough it can be.
I really like how you’ve cropped this into pano. Somehthing I rarely do, but may do in the future. Mike, you mentioned you’ve played around a bit with the software, but wonder if there is yet another version of this with a lesser vignette. The colours of the rocks beneath the wings looks a little “heavy” to me and feel that area could be desaturated a tad? Just suggestions.
Certainly @glennie. I had this version, but thought the BG was still too intrusive. It was difficult to decide which version I preferred. I’m still not sure! Thanks for your critique:
Amazing – and fantastic you were able to get the shot. I think this last version is fine – the viewer needs to peer at it to figure it out and the BG is OOF enough to show the details well. I don’t see anything you could do to improve it, and don’t think it needs anything done!
Mike, the BG here doesn’t matter at all - the behaviour and detail is exceptional. The faces and thorax are especially sharp.
Fine work; glad you posed this!
