The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I was watching this gal for a minute, and I’d given up on her doing anything. She was just sitting by the road, she didn’t really seem to care much about me. I put down my lens and of course as I was lazily looking around at other stuff with my camera at my side, she flew, I wasn’t ready for it. While I have a couple other images where she’s completely in frame, I sort of come back to this one, even though she’s not totally in the frame.
Specific Feedback
This is only a quick edit, I mostly wanted feedback to gauge whether or not this is a good idea or bad idea to keep this image since she’s not completely in the frame. What I think I like is her directionality and her movement into the frame. I only cropped a bit from ULH corner, which had nothing in it anyway. I just don’t know if this is not great from bird photographer’s POV.
Basically I’m a beginning bird photographer…
This works for me, Julie. The bird doesn’t have to be entirely in the frame and the way it fills that corner and is heading toward you really works well. I wish they’d be this nice to me sometime. If you have another frame with the same spread tail or you’re not against using the AI stuff I’d be tempted to move that right side out just enough to get the corner of the tail into the frame and take the same off the left side.
Julie: the best person to decide to keep a photo or not is you. I like it and would have kept it as well. You might consider burningthe background a bit or adding a vignette.
Julie, the exceptional detail in the head and eyes alone makes this a keeper. I try to remind myself to think “out of the box”, and this is a great example.
I’d also darken the BG just a touch.
A really sweet image!
This is really beautiful Julie! I love the energy, and think the angle and asymmetry give it a sense of dynamic action. The only thing I’d do is to lean in to the close up strength and crop in closer.
I will keep it, then! Thank you so much for all the feedback, and when I do a more thorough edit I will take all of that advice. @Dan_Hawk, I really like that crop.
I just never know how far to go with wildlife/bird photography with cropping. I wish I could just get closer to all the subjects so I never felt like I have to crop, but alas I am not that great of a stalker.
Hi Julie. I think getting very close and not cropping is a wonderful ideal, but given how quickly birds and other animals can move and the wonderful luxury we have with huge pixel counts, it’s much more practical to frame them loosely (unless they’re very cooperative) and modify the composition in post processing.
Well, my typical harrier shot is the white rear end, so I’m envious of this one coming at you. Really nice detail in the head and there’s a sense of energy and purpose. It’s a keeper for sure. Guess I’m out voted, but I like the looser crop.
I think I prefer the looser crop here, but the two could be displayed side-by-side! For me you can’t beat harriers for elegant and ominous motion in the air, and you’ve caught some of that here. Well done.
