The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is the second shot of this duck… I was in Portland, OR in September for a work conference and I took an extra day to do some birding and photography. The Crystal River Rhododendron Garden was a great place for ducks even at that in-between time of the year. I saw a lot of wood ducks (which I love) including a few immature males like this guy. It was a cloudy day so good for shooting in the afternoon. This shot was taken later in the day and it was a little darker.
Specific Feedback
The background is much cleaner with the water and no vertical log for distraction. I’d like feedback on the crop, the duck, and the overall color treatment (and anything else you might notice).
Technical Details
Fuji X-H2S, 1/2500s, f/8, ISO 8000, 600mm (Fuji 150-600 with 1.25 TC)
Lightroom with DXO PureRaw import
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
A more pleasing setting than the previous one, but I think I like the other Wood Duck as it showed a more prominent eye and more of those blue feathers. On the other hand, we see the bill and more of the head in this image. Too bad birds aren’t a bit more cooperative and give us perfect poses.
@Allen_Brooks Hmm, I see what you mean. I have more shots at this location and have just started going through them, so I’ll see what I can come up with.
I’m going to differ on this, Debbie. Fro my taste this is the best of the three images. While there’s no real eye contact that little slit in the eyelids really appeals to me and I think your processing on this one is excellent.
Nice pose Debbie and I like the colors shown here. Nice napping behavior it seems.
The processing looks okay to me so not sure if this will ever help or not, but as an FYI, I use DXO PureRaw 3 and find it best to turn off all the optical corrections and sharpening in the program. I then use Photoshop Smart Sharpen on the final image. At least for DOX Pure Raw 3, the optical correction/sharpening comes out a little too crunchy for my taste.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank, @SandyR-B. I’ll take a closer look at the log, I think I used the Lightroom blur tool on this and sometimes the edges of that are off.
