I’m not a wildlife shooter in general so it’s hard for me to tell if this is a good image.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
any
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
gfx 50r with a 250mm Zeiss Sonnar f5.6 t*. single image
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Matt, this is a stunning composition. Two herons anchoring on left and right and various postures between them is appealing.
Keep this kind of stuff coming!
As a tuneup suggestion, from a guy who favor strong BW contrast, I see the strong top as a competitor to the birds. You might tryintroducing more grays to the water, top reflections, and maybe to the birds. I appreciated the nuanced gray od the heron with wings flared. Maybe there is more of that in the scene. Eyes go to the bright spots and this has a lot of very bright water. Also eyes go to high contrast lines, in this case the top shadow/water boundary. If you would prefer to keep the strong contrast, perhaps consider cropping half of the top dark reflection.
Thank you for the suggestions. Using your feedback I came away with this edit. I’m still drawn to my original high contrast, but I do see the issue with the top . Maybe I could mirror it on the bottom, that might take some more work . Thanks for taking the time.
Nicely done, I think.
I noticed one other thing … the bird on the far right, and to a lesser extent the one on the far left, is very close to the edge. That created tension in the overall picture, and draws the eye to that edge. If that is OK for your intent, then OK, but for me, this morning, my eye has a hard time leaving that edge. I would create more space, either by re-cropping the original or content aware fill.
I think the original high key image is quite beautiful Matt, I think it works much better with the high contrast than your repost. I also would not remove the bird on the left or right, part of the strength of the image is the number of birds. The only thing that detracts just a little from the image imo is the bit of mud/vegetation behind the 2nd and 3rd birds from the left, but nothing you can really do about that I think. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. Yes there is no way to give more space on the sides unless i use content aware fill. I have some other versions but this had the best spacing and I really like how each bird is doing something a little different. I’ll have to print both to see witch looks better. Probably going to do a large canvas of this scene.
Interesting variations of opinion, Matt. I tend to prefer the tonality of the second version, but that’s just taste-I don’t tend to favor high contrast. If you’re going to print this, you could easily give yourself the look of a bit more space on the edges by your choice of matting, and I do think it could use just a bit more breathing room for the birds on the edges.
