The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
We were camping recently at Oologah Lake here in NE Oklahoma. We were there during the week when few other campers were there, and this male Pileated Woodpecker obviously felt comfortable working all over the campground. Of course, I felt obligated to record his industriousness. This is among my favorite birds simply because of its size and relative rarity.
For interested parties, according to historian George Shirk the name âOologahâ honored a Cherokee chief, Oologah, which he said translated from Cherokee as âDark Cloud.â Other sources claim the town name means âcloudy weatherâ and still others reference it as âclouds.â The Oklahoma Federal Writersâ Project wrote a sketch on Oologah, which claimed the name translated as âredhorse fish.â Btw, Oologah is the birthplace of humorist Will Rogers. Most of the Rogers family farm was inundated when Oologah dam was built. (Oklahoma Historical Society)
Specific Feedback
No. Any comments are appreciated.
Technical Details
Canon RF 100-500mm, processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz DeNoise, Hand Held
At first I thought I wanted this gorgeous woodpecker larger in the frame but after a while I decided I liked the shadows on the left of the tree for balance.
I wonder about bringing down the Highlights slider, maybe just masked to the tree. I want that woodpecker to be the star of the show! Wonderful light and detail on his face and a very nice BG!
Thanks @Diane_Miller. You felt the same way about the shadows on the trunk as did I. Yeah, the trunk is a bit bright; I can certainly bring that down a bit. Thanks!
Hi Terry, nice capture of this pileated - always great to see these. Details on the bird look sharp. I could see darkening the trunk of this tree in this version. I could also see another version cropped in from the left as that is a lot of tree trunk versus woodpecker and it looks like you have the sharpness to hold up to a vertical crop. Well done capture.
This is an interesting image from a compositional standpoint, Terry. When I look at the smaller version, I really like the framing and the shadows on the tree. When I look at it full size from the same distance, I really want it cropped to a vertical. I do agree that maybe bringing down the brightness of the tree would be an improvement, and Iâd consider trying to bring up the shadows on the belly of the woodpecker to try bringing out a little detail-though itâs not a big deal if it doesnât work.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank. I tried several different crops before I decided on this. I wasnât really fond of any of them, but decided on this because this is pretty much what I saw. But Iâm sure a vertical will work. Iâll look at the shadow on his belly.
For me, the shadows on the trunk arenât quite prominent enough to add a positive effect⌠thereâs just enough of them to be a bit distracting. I would prefer to see this tightened up a bit, by cropping from both the left and right (removing the dark shadow along the right border and some of the brown that detracts from the nice greens). Your lit subject and wonderful texture in the sunlit bark really donât need interference, IMO. Theyâre strong and captivating enough to demand all of our focus.
If the shadows of the leaves were splayed out across more of the trunk, Iâd likely feel differently, but in this case, theyâre not doing much on the periphery.
