The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I decided to head out to our local marsh, but the weather was rainy with heavy overcast conditions. After filling up the car with gas, the rain increased so I headed for home. After an hour, the rain subsided and I took off for the marsh. I found some male red-winged blackbirds and set up for some shots of them singing. I fired away and kept the camera while the bird took off. The perch which was on the LH side was more of a distraction due to it not being as sharp as the bird. So, I decided to edit that out of the image for enhancing the comp.
Specific Feedback
I was shooting with a fairly wide aperture and prefer to have the wing tips as sharp as the body of the bird. I think that I did OK with this one, considering how dark it was at the time that the photograph was taken. How do you like like comp with this limited DOF?
Technical Details
Z9 600mm f4 (1/5000 sec at f5.6, ISO 1600) DeNoise, crop for comp, Levels, Curves adjustment for contrast, Rubber stamp tool to remove OOF cattail stem.
Great capture, beautiful wing position (for me). Colors are terrific, which only aid the separation between subject and background. Excellently done! Fantastic background, too.
I would like to see a bit more space above the wing, and on the right side. Here’s a (quick) 4x5 made with generative expand to demonstrate the general idea.
I think the out-of-focus wing tips work very well with this image, as it conveys movement/flight. I try to do this when photographing flying aircraft with props. Background is excellent OOF! If you added some vibrance to the colors, I might back off a tad, but if not, then it is just spectacular coloring of this species, which I am not familiar with. I do like the added space @Gary_Hook added but overall an excellent image for sure!
Excellent image, Jim. I do like the idea of adding canvas on the right, but if you don’t like using generative expand as @Gary_Hook suggested and you have the following frame, you could probably steal some more of the background from it and blend it in without a problem. You caught a great flight pose and the slightly blurred wingtips work very well. The background cattails are gorgeous.
Terrific capture, Jim. I love the top of the wing look you captured here with the vibrant oranges, reds and yellows on full display. The wings look great to me and by the way, I don’t mind blurry wing tips at all. It shows movement and speed. Most of the time I actually prefer some slight wing tip blur but you nailed this one. That background is so integral to the look and feel of the image and it’s nicely blurred out but also giving a clear indication of the environment and reeds. I too would prefer more room for the bird to fly into and maybe more canvas along the top as @Gary_Hook did in his excellent rendition using Generative expand.
Great flying pose, Jim. Excellent detail. I like the background: you can tell what is there, but it is still nicely blurred and lets the bird standout.
