The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
Recent rains had flooded a small lake and adjacent dry pastures. It was fascinating to see all the different birds make use of the farm ditches. Everything from pelicans to honey-eaters. The pink azolla was very pretty.
Processing done in ACR included Shadows and Highlights. Bird masked and a little contrast and texture added. Into PS for NR from Topaz. Cropped to 1/3 of original frame.
The Lapwing coloring and feather detail look great. I can’t decide on cropping in on the left or oppening up on the whole frame and the Lapwing becomes a nugget in a large open field.
Hi Glenys, nice catch in a setting we rarely see in our bird photos here. I like the pinkness as well. Fine critical sharpness on the bird. I think the cropping and foreground are fine. Well done to show the bird in this habitat.
This is one of those images that looks better to me large than small. The foreground out of focus doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t know if there are any ‘rules’ about what needs to be in focus to be considered a great photo but I think the contrast of focus between the foreground and the sharp focus of the bird is a lot of what makes this image so terrific. Just my two cents… realizing I have never taken a photo like this.
Glenys: Nice comp IMO and I like your DOF choices and execution. The most substantial OOF FG elements are far enough away from the bird that I think they’re a non-issue. The BG does a great job of isolating and complementing the subject. Even though I’m certainly not an avian expert this looks pretty darn good to me.>=))>
The composition looks good to me, Glennie. Any tighter and the grasses in front of the bird would start having more presence, whereas now they’re part of the larger habitat and not an issue.
A very nice image!! The bird is unusual for most of us, and well-detailed, and the habitat is lovely with a wonderful DOF. I would normally not like an OOF FG but this one works for me – possibly because it softens the water surface and balances the bird diagonally. Well done!!
