The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It was my 4th day out hunting for Osprey… They are incredibly common this time of year in Florida but no joy at all the spots I scouted. This lovely Specimen dove over my head and landed on this perch about 30 feet away. This was one of my favorites of the bursts I was able to capture.
I love how the windy day… fluffed up his back feathers into a sort of crown.
Specific Feedback
Would love Reactions to the image… Does it strike you?
Additionally any suggestions for Capture work, pre capture tips, or post capture tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much
Technical Details
Post processing in Lightroom. Recovering some highlights, color grading and cropping
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
I love the feather doo on this osprey Freddie. I also like the OOF palm trees in the BG, and the perch. Some of the greens look a bit over saturated, so you m ight want to burn them back a bit, particularly the one right next to the osprey’s head.
I love the fluffed up “hairdo”, Freddie. I also agree that the greens look overdone and if you look above the head you’ll see some greens that have a really strange smooth boundary, quite unlike what you wold actually see in nature. You mentioned processing in LR and this looks as if maybe you selected the greens and then boosted the saturation. The selection tools often give you a smooth boundary like this rather than the nicely detailed one that you might wish for and if you make large adjustments the boundary starts becoming obvious. It’s a real pain. The only solution in LR is to keep the adjustments fairly subtle, though the color grading tool works pretty well. You have a somewhat similar “cutout” look to the hairdo on the osprey which is probably a very similar issue. For detailed work the LR selection tools just aren’t sensitive enough. However, in this case, I think just backing off on the amount of the adjustments you made would do the trick. Detail in the Osprey is excellent and really doesn’t need much of any enhancement.
Thank you @Dennis_Plank , @Allen_Brooks , @Ed_Williams For your call out on the Greens… I’ve backed the green saturation off…and it’s achieved a much more natural boundry… THANK YOU so much for the critiques… I wouldn’t have even noticed it… My mind focuses too much on the subject and I don’t account enough in my mind for the background.
