The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
A pelican seen at Reelfoot Lake, famous for its cypress trees.
Specific Feedback
I thought I’d share this more expansive view giving an idea of the overall environment and scale of the trees/scenery. Any thoughts on overall composition and impact?
Technical Details
Canon R7, Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary
ISO 1600, f7.1, 1/4000s, hand held from boat
Processed in DXO PureRaw 3 and Photoshop.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
What a wonderful feeling we get of the environment around this bird. At first I thought that maybe the BG should be blurred a bit more, but it’s so integral to the life of the pelican (and contrasts so well with its colors) that I changed my mind. An exciting and evocative shot.
It is kind of exciting as Mike says. There’s a feeling of anticipation with the single bird - will there be more? They usually go about in gangs. The bird’s bright white is great, maybe a tiny bit too much, but for me the bg doesn’t match up in terms of expected luminosity. Maybe lifting the whites and highlights there will make it more harmonious and less like the bird is pasted on, which we know it isn’t. I like the way you caught this frame with it in between two larger trees. Looks determined to get where it’s going.
I like this a lot, Allen. I do tend to agree with @Kris_Smith about the background. Another way to fix it might be to use the color picker in LR and bring up the luminosity of the cypress foliage. I’d also crop from the bottom just enough to clear that ripple line that runs right along the bottom of the frame and maybe come down from the top to just above the first right hand branch on the left tree to raise the pelican a bit in the frame.
I brought this into NIK Viveza 3 (old version) and tried playing with the reds (luminance, brightness, saturation). Repost above. I guess the difference is quite subtle but I didn’t want to overdo it. The day was quite cloudy so I didn’t want to make it look artificial. I also re-cropped it per Dennis’ suggestion.
This is the type of birds in flight I like, where you really see the scope of the environment the bird is flying through. I like the more pop to the reds in the re-post as well as the subtle change in composition.
Allen, this is a fine photo. I like the way the white pelican is juxtaposed on the red background, and the glide / landing position of the bird’s wings. I wonder if the photo would work in an 8 by 10 or square crop, removing some of the rhs dark area. This could lift the photo overall to something brighter.
You have lifted the normal and everyday to something worth looking at.
What I saw in your image was two elements fighting for equal visual acuity: the reds in the Cypress trees and the white (and details) of the pelican, not an easy task when there is such a contrast range.
As you can see by the images adjustments I’ve attached to your image, I took many of the previous comments into consideration and added a few of my own. I live on a lake which is attached to a quite large swamp area. While I rarely see the White Pelicans, I do often see the Great Egrets flying against the backdrop of cypress trees. While ours don’t go as red as these, they do get enough color to challenge the edit and the bright whites of the Egrets present the same challenge.
Rather than give one element predominance, I gave both a more even tonal range. Mostly what I did was to darken the very dark BG between the trees, give more depth to the red and oranges then toned down the overly bright white in the pelican so it could both stand out against the backdrop without overpowering the scene.
I should note that most of the curve adjustments were set to screen mode (to brighten the reds/oranges) in the adjustments and feathered quite significantly and the levels adjusts were simply adjusted as needed. I used TK9 Combo for the Dehazing but PS/ACR works just as well.
Looks good Chris. Thanks for taking the time to do this version. This does add some more pop. I can see redoing something like this when I have a good amount of time - maybe a winter project.
Thank you!
I was on my phone earlier when I liked your post and am just now seeing this on my desktop monitor.
