The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
Welcome swallow, adding its tiny voice to the symphony of nature, that swirled and bubbled along the river.
Feedback Requested
I would like my images to engage people with nature, hold their attention for a moment and have that moment bring connection of some kind. While this is simply another bird on a stick, I hope it portrays an ordinary bird, seen but overlooked every day, as the wonderful little masterpiece that it is, and that perhaps, its hopeful proud singing gives pause to consider its nature, to question, to notice.
Well mission accomplished! And welcome back, too. This is engaging and does hold my attention. To see a bird like this sitting still is one thing, but that wide beak is just wonderful. The title suits the scene so well.
That said, I wonder if the branch is a tad too bright. Possibly toning that down will harmonize the colors and the paleness of much of the frame. The colors in the bird pop well with that aspect. Did you play with cropping at all? I wonder if we need so much of the empty space, but that might not be true. Great catch.
Welcome back, Anne! This is a lovely image and the singing pose is very engaging, with the lovely BG making the bird and its perch stand out so beautifully! The branch is a strong element leading the eye to the bird, but I also wonder if its whites could be tamed just a bit, as they pull my eye away from the lovely little bird. (It would be easy to limit that to just the brightest part of the perch.)
I look forward to seeing more of your images and hearing your comments on others!
Thank you so much Kristen. You are right about the branch, now that you point it out, it would definitely be less distracting. I won’t be hard to burn that down a little.
Hello Dianne!!! Wonderful to be back in touch. Beint the worlds most distractable photographer I’ve been doing pretty much everything but working on my photography. So it high time I did. Your advice about the perch is good. It won’t be hard to burn it down and make it less distracting. I’ll give that a go. Thanks!
Hi Anne, I think this is much more than a “bird on a stick” especially with that great singing pose. I also like the curvy perch and smooth background. Agree with toning down the perch a bit. I like this version but I could see an alternative at a closer crop. Looks like the detail would hold up to it. Nice catch.
Hello Anne and welcome back. I really like the singing pose of the swallow and the curve of that perch. My comments pretty much echo those of @Kris_Smith@Diane_Miller and @Allen_Sparks . I did take the liberty of downloading your image and doing a little additional processing on it in PS.
I cropped it a bit, mostly from the upper right and a bit off the bottom, putting the head a bit further to the right in the frame. I brought the brightness down on the perch just a bit and lastly added just a touch of fine detail boost using the detail adjustment in the Topaz Detail plugin (any microcontrast technique works). Anyhow, just my take on an already fine image.
Certainly nice to have you here @anne4 ! Your top-notch images will showcase our beautiful birds.
I have been tempted to leave more room around my birds lately , however, I like the idea of a tighter crop on this one. You are lucky to have an image with multiple choices for a crop.
Background is gorgeous, as is that perch. (See the rock embedded just below the swallow’s foot.) Burning it down a touch would also look fine. The singing pose is delightful.
You certainly got this Barn swallow in action! - love the soft background - and I agree with toning down the branch as well as trimming space behind the bird, yet keeping decent breathing space in front!
