The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Loved spending time watching this Egret hunt and devour its catch.
Specific Feedback
Looking for general feedback on aesthetics. Do you like the photo and the capture of the crustacean? Should I crop it more?
Technical Details
Nikon Z9, Nikkor Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S
1/640 at f/4 ISO 110, 560mm
Sharpened in Topaz, minor edits to Exposure, Highlights, Whites, Blacks, etc. in Lightroom Classic
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
I don’t think I’d crop it any more, Christine. In fact a touch more room on the left, if you have it, would be nice for my taste. I like the backlit critter and the way it fits so beautifully in the beak. You might look at bringing the exposure up a bit, just limiting the whites enough to avoid blowing them out, maybe something like the below, though working with the raw file you should be able to control it better. I didn’t mess with it because of space limitations, but I think this could use a bit of counter-clockwise rotation. The easiest way on this kind of image is to level on the long axis of the ripple ellipse which should be horizontal.
Very nice image. Great timing on catching the bird’s catch. I like @Dennis_Plank suggestion re: more room on the left if you have it. That bug appears to be quite smart. Looks like it placed a stick in the beak so the bird would be unable to close its beak.
Nice catch Christine. Love the seeing the snack being flipped like this. Agree with Dennis’ suggestions especially more room on the left. Bird’s head seems to be slightly angled away from us which isn’t ideal but this is still a very pleasing image to view.
Thank you @Allen_Sparks I too didn’t love the head position. Had to go with it though! I was so focused on not disturbing the bird that I was too afraid to move! Am going to work on getting more of the left side!
Hi Christine
Nice work on this Egret, I know how you feel about moving around the bird to get a better angle. It looks like you were fairly close to the egret, keep shooting.
Peter
