Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
The mute swans had a good season: 5 kids succcessfully raised. Two still in their gray clothes, three already more or less white.
They were feeding, heads under water, until they starting to move to a different spot and gave me the opportunity to make a family portrait with all members visible.
Specific Feedback
I like portraits of animals in their habitat. Do you think that there is too much lakeshore included in the image?
I cropped some of the water in the FG and a little of the L and R edges. Would you prefer a more symmetric image? There is bit more at the R edge in the file.
Technical Details
Pentax K3 Mk. III, 300mm, ISO640, f/8, 1/800sec.
Nothing special in PP, only crop and curves.
Hi Han, Nice to see the five cygnets successfully raised. Also nice to have all seven birds sharp in the frame here. As far as cropping, while the flowers in the upper part of the image add some interest to me, I could see a crop just above the large green plants on the shoreline. I think this would bring more attention to the stars of the show here while still giving context to the scene. The back of the bird on the right is pretty bright. I’m wondering if that could be darkened some. Overall a quite nice family scene.
Hi Han. I like Allen’s idea of cropping this-you might even go for a panorama look with this much horizontal spread in the subjects. Both of the adults look pretty bright-you might start by pulling down the highlights in the raw processor.
Thank you @Allen_Sparks and @Dennis_Plank for your comments! I had to wait pretty long before I was able to get all birds sharp in the frame and all heads above water.
Yes, both of the adults are bright (although not clipped). I’ve pulled down the highlights a bit. I also did a different crop, 16:9 ratio and made the image more symmetric. Better, I think.
1 Like
I like this, Han. The birds seem to have a lot morepresence in the repost.
I like the repost Han. Shows the scene and birds better I think.
