Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction
Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Is the subject obvious?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
An Osprey (Pandion hallaetus), with it’s prey securely held with his talons against a dead tree limb, prepares to feed on the fish. He was so secure that I walked right up to a position almost directly below him.
Osprey are diurnal fish-eating raptors who tolerate a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water, in this case the Yakima River.
Technical Details
Canon EOS 30D; EF 70-200mm +2x @ 400mm; f/13 @ 1/125 sec -2 EV, ISO 100; this image was captured in the bottom of the canyon in soft flat shadows. The color rendition was unappealing and the color was inessential so I converted to B&W making the foreground tree/bird stand out against the lighter, unflattering background.
Specific Feedback
Does the conversion achieve its intended outcome?
I think the subject is obvious, Bob. The background is confusing me however-it looks like open brush land and I’m not used to that kind of background for Ospreys so it creates some mental confusion-not a bad thing. In both the color and B&W, it feels like the bird could use a bit more contrast and be a bit sharper.
And now that I read your location everything fits. I do see why you converted to B&W. The shrub steppe really made an unappealing background in color.
A bird of prey on a dead tree has an ominous feel about it. I think this mood is enhanced by your black and white conversion. My only thought would be to see if playing around with the contrast makes the tree and osprey pop more.
Thank you @Dennis_Plank and @ Allen Brooks for your observations. I am going to make a third rendition to increase the contrast of the tree and bird in the B&W version.
Hi Bob, my initial reaction is that’s a cool perch to catch an osprey with seemingly something in its talons. I like both versions. I think you could darken the black and white. Bird and tree look a bit soft to me. Interesting photo.
@Allen_Brooks @Dennis_Plank I have made some modifications as you have suggested—increase the contrast and sharpness. The bird’s feathers around his eye dosen’t lend the area to much sharpening.
1 Like
I like the snag that this osprey chose to land on for a meal. It has quite a bit of character. I wish there wasn’t a branch going across the front of the osprey so it would have been more ideal to move to the right to eliminate that branch. Not a deal breaker but something that certainly catches the eye. I prefer the rework you did on the black and white as the background is not ideal in the original color version. In B&W it’s kind of cool looking in an almost abstract way. The framing and the composition look good to me. I wish it was just a tad sharper and in a perfect world I wish the bird had the prey in his beak or that the bird was looking at you. You may have other versions with a more interactive bird. If so, I’d love to see those.
