The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.
Self Critique
I like the subject matter, high key processing, and contrasting focus/blur within the image. There was a dark crevice behind its head that I spent a lot of time removing in PS. Please let me know if there’s anything that looks fake, weird, or distracting in the background or around its neck.
Creative direction
I like this image because it shows the head in crisp focus while the wings are blurred from its movement. I wanted to fill the frame to provide a majestic, yet soft presence. I’m building a 150 image portfolio and hope that this image is refined enough to be included.
Specific Feedback
Aesthetic, conceptual, emotional, and technical feedback appreciated.
Technical Details
ISO 100, 500mm, f/20, 1/160 sec
Processed with LR, PS, and Topaz Denoise
Description
The Trumpeter Swans are returning North after their Winter migration. I believe it is a recently exiled juvenile. At first it was with 2 other swans and by the end of the shoot, it had been pushed away after a big water thrashing between it and 1 of the others in its group. Once it was alone, it stretched it wings multiple times.
I think this is a very artful image and I like it. The high key look suits this image very well. I also like the head of the bird being in focus with the rest of the body being out of focus. I don’t see anything that looks distracting in the background. No suggestions from me. Nice job.
Hi Ann. A beautifully artistic look at this swan. I don’t see an issue with the background, but when I look at the larger version, it appears that you might have erased a bit of the top of the neck (where it’s almost level) when you worked on the background. I’m not sure what your process is, but I almost always select the bird, copy it and put it on a separate layer so I don’t have to worry about it. If I know I’m going to be working on the background, I’ll be very careful about the selection of the bird.
One other thing you might try is to brighten the grays in the shadowed areas of the wings a trifle-to my eye they seem just a bit too obvious.
As the others said, I find this a very artistic image. The high key effect works well with the subject. There’s an ethereal sense to the wings. I see what Dennis means about the neck; something to check on. Overall, well composed and thought out.
@Dennis_Plank Thank you for the feedback. I’m super new to editing in PS so I do not have a process in place (let alone a good process) and just a few months ago would not have even considered this image due to the distraction in the background. The neck and the area of the background that was the problem were the same color. PS did not correctly auto-recognize the bird in this area. How do you suggest copying the bird in this situation? Let PS select the subject then try to adjust the selection? Will I have to re-do the work I’ve done (I already flattened the layers and discarded the background copy) or could I bring the original in as a separate file and somehow merge 2 files??
Ouch! You can do it, but it will be a little tricky. Open both your edited and your original files in PS. they’ll be on separate tabs. Open the original and zoom in until that neck area fills most of your screen. If you have good eye-hand coordination you can use the freehand selection tool (looks like a stylized lasso) and select the upper part of the neck very carefully. If your eye hand coordination is poor like mine, you can use the polygonal selection tool and just keep clicking in little steps along the edge then go down inside a bit and connect the ends. After selecting, go to the [Select] menu at the top and find [modify/feather] and set the feather to maybe 5 pixels. Then copy the selection (ctrl C on a PC) and switch to your processed image. Then you can just paste it (crtrl V) there and reposition it in the proper location. It will be on a separate layer, so if it needs exposure matching or something you can just make the adjustments to that layer until it matches properly. It’s not that bad a process and takes less time to do than to write.
Hi Ann, love the creative, high key look here. I think the head of the swan is well positioned in the frame and the processing of the wings and background is well done. Agree with others on the neck selection. Hope your rework of that is not too difficult.
Good catch @Dennis_Plank. With that being said, I like the artistic nature of this shot. Keeping the head sharp while the wings are in motion was a great idea. You might consider reducing the contrast of the head and neck. Something like that of the belly of the bird I think would look really nice and keeping with the high key nature of this. The head stands out a little too much for me. Just my thoughts though. I think with a couple of tweaks this should surely fit into you portfolio.
My only suggestion after all the good ones above is to perhaps round the corners of the shot. To my perhaps eccentric eye this would further enhance the feeling I get of smooth roundness when looking at this.
A very nice idea. But I would crop off the bottom 1/5 to 1/4 in a heartbeat – the detail on the body pulls my eye out of the image. If you really want this crop, lighten that area so it almost disappears, with a soft-edged mask or low-opacity cloning from the area on the right.
PS gives you the tools of a painter for difficult and precise selections. Get what you can with a select > subject or the quick-selection tool and then use the power of quick-masking. Hit the Q key to make any selection a mask – or just start painting a mask from scratch. Choose the brush tool and adjust its size to give the softness you need for edges and paint away – black brush to paint (the default mask color will be red) and hit the X key to go to a white brush to erase the red. Go back and forth as much as you need. Q key again to make that a selection. Inverse the selection if needed – the quick mask default is red for protected areas and white for selected but you can reverse that by double-clickign the QM icon at the bottom of the tool palette. Then do your cloning – on a new layer.
Never flatten your master file. Never! A mask on any layer can be edited at any time – with the brush technique above. And a mask that isn’t incorporated into a layer can be saves, to pull up whenever needed. And a mask can be copied from one layer to another by holding the Alt/Opt key and dragging.
And always keep the original raw file. Always. Export a flat jpeg or tif for posting or printing.
