The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
While sitting in the kayak I had plenty of opportunities to photograph Red-winged black birds doing their thing, which is feeding the kids, mostly. Because I was in a bog the vegetation was varied, but different from the usual cattails and grasses. This female is searching at the top of a dead tamarack pine and even though it’s busy, I liked the extra environmental information it provides. Plus I love tamaracks dead or alive.
Specific Feedback
Thoughts on the poses and distraction removal job welcome. There are branches in each photo that aren’t in the other. Is that too weird when viewed together?
Technical Details
Handheld in the boat, w/CPL on the lens. The day was thin overcast, but I needed it for a turtle portrait to cut the glare on the shell and I decided to keep it on.
Shot #1
Shot #2
Lr for RAW processing basics and some smallish crops, Topaz Sharpen AI & then into Photoshop for some masking and dodging and burning and also distraction removal.
Hi Kris. I love the tamarack, and the bird isn’t bad either. The difference in branches isn’t noticeable to me. If I had them on the wall side by side, I’d probably notice, but this way I don’t. My favorite by far is the second. I love the upside down pose and the activity she’s displaying.
I would pretty much echo the comments of @Dennis_Plank. The bird isn’t super sharp in either photo, but I wouldn’t expect it to be, given all the obstructions and the fact you’re in a kayak. Very interesting looks at this bird in her environment.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank & @terryb - she was quite acrobatic as she searched among the branches. Pretty entertaining and not worried about my presence. Maybe because the lake gets regular use and has a few houses on it, she and the others have become habituated to humans and their odd methods of locomotion.
Eek, I just noticed some bad noise reduction and will have to fix that pronto. Ugh. I hate it when I get too excited to do a good job. Also might have switched up the shutter speed to get her crisper.
Good environmental and action shots. No problem with the branches, wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t mentioned it-and good job in removing them. I like the blurred background-the bird and tree show nicely against it.
Both of these are great catches Kris. Love that you included the full end of the branch here - an added element of interest for sure. I pixel peeped and noticed a grainy area below the head of the bird in the second image. Fine captures and thanks for sharing!
Thanks @David_Schoen, @Allen_Brooks & @Allen_Sparks - yeah, their behavior was on full display when I was out. Have a few more of females and some of males, too, that I’ll post after I clean out the noise leftovers from these. Bah.
I really like both the shots with the contrasting poses and habitat, Kristen. The dead pine adds a lot with its interesting features. I wouldn’t have noticed the missing branches if you hadn’t mentioned it. But even with that, the images would look fine if viewed separately. The artifacts on the second images are visible at full-scale, but that’s an easy fix.
Thanks @S_Govindarajan - the bog vegetation is certainly varied and I really liked the tree she was on so was happy that she was visible at least for a couple shots.
Here’s an updated version of the noisy shot - ran a denoise AI action in Lr on the raw file, recropped it and the Sharpen AI file and brought them into Ps as layers so I could mask in the background from the denoise AI DNG onto the sharprer bird layer.
I like the first and the larch adds something special to the overall image. Everything looks good and the colors are vibrant, but not overly done. Very nice as presented…Jim
