Any comments are welcome.
Particularly interested in these comments.
(If backgrounds have been removed, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn) This a vertical crop from a horizontal. Picture taken near mouth of a tidal river. Timber pilings are from an old fish cannery. 5D4, 500mm x 1.4 TC ISO 1600, f/5.6, 1/1000
First of all, David, I would like to welcome you to NPN. I do hope that you find this site to be everything you hoped it to be.
What great timing to capture the squabble of these two Cormorants. I love the splash of the water, the two perches with all the brown grass on them. The reflections in the water is a nice addition as well. To me, I am thinking, if you have the pixels to work with, that this might be better presented in a crop horizontally. I feel like the top portion isn’t adding to the image, and the tan streak (maybe shoreline) is actually pulling my eye upward. The crop would also bring the subjects in closer for better details maybe. Just a thought. Looking forward to more of your images.
I also welcome you to this wonderful site and agree with Shirley’s comments. The line at the top does cause me to concentrate on it when the main area of attention should be the cormorants which are excellent. Maybe just a top crop to eliminate it.
David: welcome to NPN. You’ve captured a great moment between these squabbling cormorants. The reflections of the posts and birds adds balance to the lower portion of the image. I think that the image cam be improved by cropping the upper third which has nothing of interest. It is an excellent capture of the decisive moment. Richard
Another vote to eliminate the bands of color at the top of the image. Very interesting perches. The action and timing of the capture is wonderful. Also nice color and light. There’s a lot to like about this photo!
Thank you for the warm welcome. I hope I can contribute in a helpful way to the site. I am looking forward to it and posting some macro shots as well as other photos.
Of course you are all right in suggesting a different view of the scene. I have included another look at it.
I am on a mission to include habitat in my bird and other photos.
I do think I prefer the first version. Even with the nice warm light in both versions the first feels more inclusive for me. And to top it off, I had just sent it in for a canvas print job so am stuck with it. Haha.
Thanks Again.
Welcome to NPN, David. This is a wonderful first post. I love the poses of the two cormorants and the setting with the two grass grown posts is superb. I would suggest cropping quite a bit from the top as the dark band up there keeps drawing my eye away from the birds. I played with it and a 4x5 aspect ratio crops the top right in the upper part of the dark band, which surprisingly to me, looks pretty decent, but it would be easy to clone over the dark as well.
Welcome again, and I look forward to seeing a lot more of your work and your comments on other’s efforts.
Thanks Dennis for the welcome. I am looking forward to being part of the forum.
And thank you for your comments. I am a bit confused however. Did you have a look at a crop with part of the vegetation band included? Sort of like a bit of ceiling?
Dave
Exactly. I’m attaching the crop that resulted from a straight 4x5 aspect ratio with all the extra taken off the top, so you can see what I was talking about.
It still pulls my eye a bit which is why I mentioned that you might want to clone over it with the lighter background below it.
Thanks Dennis. A third and possibly fourth option.
