I was watching the ball game yesterday evening when, out the window, I noticed a flock of turkeys were in the backyard in some last moments of dappled sunset light and when this guy stepped into the spotlight to backlight his tail fan, I raced to get the camera to snipe a shot from the garage. Worth missing some ball game, I thought.
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
The cropping is tight as he was not very far away. I skipped dodging his shaded area too much in an effort to pop the contrast of the lit up tail. I only slightly brought up the shadow’s mid tones.
Technical Details
Z9, Nikon 200-500 lens, monopod, 1/2000th, f 9.0, ISO 11400, cropped to 3375 x 3592, Photo AI
An awful gaudy dude, Dave. Must be mating season. This kind of super rich light can be difficult as it looks almost unreal and the contrast with the blues in the shaded area makes it more so. Even though I’m sure it’s accurate, you might want to try toying with the color temperature and saturation in the shadows and sunlit areas separately a bit to see if you like it.
Well I hope the ladies are impressed! Just look at him strut. That tail is amazing and I love the light you have through it. The iridescence is even showing up well and that’s hard to catch sometimes. Totally worth missing some of the game for. I’ve been known to jump up during dinner and run outside with the camera. I think given the camera you’ve got you could open up the shadows in his face (wouldn’t want to miss the face only mother could love) and breast. The wing catches the light nicely, but the legs seem a tad bright. Just some evening out and I think he’ll be ready for his close up!
Perfect pose in awesome light, with the color in the tail echoed by the FG dead grass. Definitely worth some more tonal work in shadows and highlights.
