The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is an old one from 2018 on a trip to Nome. By shear coincidence, one of the other Nome images popped up on my randomly rotating desktop today and made me think of a ptarmigan image for this challenge. I probably posted this one back then, but I’m not sure-there were a ton of images from that trip. In any case, I reprocessed this one ten minutes ago.
Specific Feedback
I left the sprouting plant in because I thought it fit the challenge, even though I’m not sure I like it. Opinions?
Technical Details
Canon 7D2, Sigma 150-600 Contemporary at 600 mm, f/8, 1/4000, iso 1000 (at 8:33 p.m.). Processed in DxO PureRaw 5, LR & PS CC. Cropping and brightening and lifting shadows in the bg, mostly to get separation between the dirty snow and the dark beak.
The bird and background mix well. I like the head positioning. The fresh growth is an added bonus. Thanks for sharing. Always fun to go back in your catalog and rework images or even work on images you passed over initially,
Here’s a bird I’ve never seen. And what a beauty. He/she certainly looks to be in the pigeon or grouse family.
I like seeing the debris of habitat behind. For the weekly challenge I think the little plant fits the bill. But, I do find it distracting and might consider removing it.
The green shoot with snow, and especially the changing plumage, fit the challenge to a T. I’d only suggest possibly making the area behind the beak lighter, as beak and BG seem to clash a bit. I’ve always wanted to see a ptarmigan, though I never wanted to spell it!
Dennis, this is a fine entry, with that single green shoot a neat harbinger of spring. Of course, the bird’s mixed plumage also says spring. I agree with @Mike_Friel that a touch of dodging behind the beak would make it easier to see. It blends in quite well with the snow/brush mix.
Mike and Mark: I’ve done a repost with the area behind the beak brought up considerably more using a technique someone showed us at a camera club meeting a few months ago of intersecting selections in LR. In this case, I selected the bird, inverted it and intersected it with an elliptical gradient to get just the darker area along that snow and hopefully blend it in. Interestingly, as I raised the exposure, the brown started looking awfully pink, so I reduced the saturation as well. Hopefully it blended in reasonably well.
Really nice look at the ptarmigan, Dennis. Excellent detail and the whites look good. The new growth fits the challenge, though as I viewed this from the avian section, I could see where it does draw the eye some. For me, the original is just fine.
