Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I think it’s a good image that tells a story. I wish the oof branches weren’t there, but they aren’t a major distraction for me.
Technical Details
Canon R7, Canon RF 100-500mm @ 300mm, f/7.1, 1/500 sec., ISO6400. Processed in ACR and PSE 2020 for exposure and cropping. Topaz DeNoise
Nice composition and details, Terry. The oof branches are ok. I like the movement of the rain which helps the story. The dark background helps bring out the subject.
Terry, this is a beautiful image of a Cardinal. The colors of the bird look spot on and not to saturated. The background is delightful and the rain drops just add to the story. Great job. This is very insignificant, but there is a small light area on the edge just below the ULC that could be darkened.
Thank you @Donna_Callais. I didn’t notice that little bright spot; good eye. You made a good observation concerning the color saturation. It’s so easy to oversaturate the reds on this bird, something I must fight every time I process a photo of one.
This is very pretty. The overall image has an nice environmental feeling. The rain falling adds an extra element that is really nice.
You said you wish the OOF branches weren’t there. So do I. You said they aren’t a major distraction for you. For me, that was one of the very first things my eyes went to.
Let me ask… if you were a painter, painting this scene, would you add them in? Yes, I fully understand we can’t control all of the variables, but I also think it is easy to talk ourselves into “it’s not a distraction”.
Post Processing is a critical skill. Those OOF branches were easy to remove in PS with simple content aware fill.
Hey, @Keith_Bauer. Thanks for the comments and observations. The photo definitely looks better without those branches. I’ll try removing them, again. When I did it, it kept leaving artifacts - particularly around the bird’s tail. Perhaps content aware in PSE isn’t as good as in PS CC? Or maybe I was just sloppy.
I too really like how you have managed the rain. My only addition to the comments already made is that this bird doesn’t listen to pop music because rainy days and Mondays don’t get it down. The detail in the bird’s head and feathers is terrific.
Obviously only the front branch needs to be removed.
HI Terry
The Cardinal looks totally frustrated with the ran and you managed to present this image with good color, feather detail and eye contact. As for the branches, they are a draw back, but I would have had to leave them in, because DXO has a problem with cloning out branches like that.
You can see were Keith made his cloning work.
Peter
Thanks, @Peter_Morrissey. I couldn’t make content aware work in PhotoShop Elements, either without leaving artifacts. Thanks for stopping by and for your comments.
Hi Terry, an image that proves that rain can add a lot to an images, and we shouldn’t stay indoors because of it. The bird looks great, the BG a bit noisy. Agree with Keith on the branches - and ideally they shouldn’t be there in the first place - but what can you do. Clone them out, with a lot of patience and check for detail I guess. Either way, a pleasant image ! Cheers, Hans
