In Apple Valley CA this week so headed to the local park. There were a lot of Canada Geese, and they seem to have one thing on their minds. Making a loud noise stretching their necks. I am assuming the male in the back is calling but I am not sure.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
This was cropped 2:3 with a lot of water around. Feedback welcome onanything.
They are cantankerous this time of year. Nice catch. It looks pretty soft to me and the blacks are lifted too much as well. Oh and a bit cyan. I think adding some contrast might help, but the softness will still be there. Do you use Topaz sharpen at all or anything similar? That could help, too, but it’s just geese so it’s not like you couldn’t try for this shot again.
*Thanks, @Kris_Smith. I increased the contrast a little and shifted color somewhat. I have been using Photo AI lately, Topaz combined the 3 main programs and it seems to be pretty smart on what needs to be done. I still have the other programs and sometimes see if they can do better than Photo AI. So far they have not. They update Photo AI all the time.
I haven’t gone to Photo AI because there hasn’t been good manual masking. I see they have made a crack at it, but I wonder if they will improve it. Pretty rudimentary at best.
It was free for me so one reason I got it. The latest update really improved the masking but I never tried manually masking in it. I always use smart objects in Photoshop so I better control any plugin.
Hi Dean
You have captured the true essence of Geese, Kristen uses of cantankerous, is at time an understatement. I am surprised the Canon R6 and Canon 100-500m & 1.4ext didn’t give you a sharper photograph. I can understand the loosing some of the feather detail on the seconds Goose, with the sun reflecting of its back. I like the framing and would only add, you could look at using local brushes on the Geese and toning down the sharpness on the water. Nice work.
Peter
The wind 30mph did not help, @peter and being handheld. Still, it was a little softer than I would think it should Photo AI actually did get it much sharper, but I think it was too much, so I did not use that. I might take another try at another photo of the same thing. Also, at 700mm I think a tripod or monopod is really needed. I did that yesterday with better results overall. It is easier to just handhold but with my shaking not as easy as the past. I do like the action which I am focusing more on lately.
