Raven

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

5D ISO1000 400mm 1/1000 f5.6
Shot in open shade where DOF always a challenge. The crop is trying to avoid the not so interesting perch and still maintain some kind of balance. All words welcome.

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2

The feathers come out nicely here. If it were mine, I may be tempted to go for a 2:3 ratio, taking a little bit from the LH side. Kind regards, Hans

3

Thank you Hans, I will give it a try.

4

Nice feather structure and background, Steven. I like the amount of perch you incorporated, though I tend to disagree that it’s “not so interesting”, but that’s just my taste. To my eye, the raven is a bit overexposed, but I tend to prefer black birds to be darker than most people. I normally expose them so the shadows are blocked a bit.

5

Nice pose and perch. The background works very well with the perch. I agree with Hans on the crop. These birds are very difficult to get exposed correctly with respect to the black plumage. Considering your lighting conditions, I think you did a good job. They are moderately reflective and iridescent in sunlight.

6

Shooting black birds is always a bit challenging. Like Dennis, I think the raven is a bit overexposed and would benefit from a bit richer blacks. Like Hans, I think the image would be strong with a bit different crop with more room on the right. I made a couple of adjustments selecting the bird to add a curve for richer blacks. I did a content aware crop to add some room on the right and remove some on the left. and I selectively darkened the perch a bit via a curves adjustment layer. See if you think this helps.

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1ed0dc6701d653618d2df29335f0b87cc5e12c15-copy978×1200 679 KB

7

Very nice, I prefer the tonal range.
The real problem with the image (my version) is the triangle shape of the perch. There are very few triangles in nature so the shape (for me) is inappropriate in a nature image. My crop is trying to help that by having less of a triangle, you made it larger, making the print less attractive to me. The larger perch also competes more with the BG, not good. If this was wanting to be a magazine cover, the extra perch would be a plus so to add copy, Thanks for the nudging that fantasy…and your skill and time.
Thank You