White on White

[Marina Scarr]

Going to be off of the grid for a little bit but wanted to share an image first. Did a little bit of experimenting with a White Pelican shooting after sunset, up close, with a little bit of flash. Here is my favorite after day one, although I must admit I am unsure whether I like it myself. I made some adjustments in ACR for the whites but actually did nothing in PS (not even NR) except for resizing and sharpening. Your comments and critiques would be much appreciated since this isn't my normal kind of shot. This coming year, I would really like to focus on producing more unique, artistic and/or out of the box images. It's not my forte, so your thoughts would be most helpful.

Happy shooting!

Canon 1D4, Canon 500L & 1.4
F11, 1/10sec, ISO 640, manual mode
Fill flash @ -1
Feisol tripod, Jobu head, cable release

[Don Railton]

Hi Marina

I think you might have hit the ground running...! I would crop a little more off the bottom and maybe off the LHS to balance, maybe so the beak is close to LLH corner... my reasoning is that the OOF foreground is stealing my eye too much. apart from that... Beautiful..!

DON

[Tiago Caravana]

Hi Marina!
I like it a lot and wouldn't change the birds positioning for 2 reasons:
.first I don't believe that this kind of pictures are supposed to be obvious, they are out of the box and should be beautiful and this one really is
.second I love the beak pointing to the left lower corner of the pic. Whenever I can, I always try to have either the bird's beak pointing to a corner or the perch coming from a corner.
I'm curious to see more of these kind of photos from you :)

[keith mitchell]

Marina this is one beautiful piece of art so different so keep letting us have a look at them, certainly rocks my boat.

Keith.:S3::S3::S3:

[David Salem]

The sharp eye against the dappled whites looks great. Well done

[gail bisson]

Hi Marina,
Your techs look good and you have mastered the fill flash well. Image doesn't look flashed.The eye and bill show beautiful detail and color against the whites.
The whites look great.
Everyone's artistic vision is so unique and subjective. I like the image but wish you had been a bit higher to reduce the amount of visible shoulder ( or FG ) and eliminate the OOF feathers that create a ridge just above the shoulder between the beak and LHS. This is purely a personal viewpoint and my feeling is that if you like it as is, enjoy it as is!
gail

[christopher galeski]

Marina,one word Beautiful.well done.

[Grace Scalzo]

Exquisite! This is going to be a wonderful journey, Marina and I am looking forward to your work.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Marina, love the various tones of white, and in turn, overall well exposed. Fill flash very subtle, so well done in that dept too. Excellent detail on the bill, and the colours pop so well against the white plumage. Well thought out.

[John Robinson]

All been said really. You can play around with this no end but still looks good whatever.
JR

[Bill Dix]

Certainly works for me. Flash is not evident, and the detail on the eye and bill is terrific. Actually, I've always found your images to be artistic. As Johnny says, you could play around with it; and everyone will have a different suggestion. Mine would be to try adding a bit on the left, cropping a bit on the right to move the eye closer to the ROT. But I like it just as posted.

[Holger Leyrer]

This is a very beautiful portrait. The colors works great. My compliment for this Image :S3:

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Very artistic and great out of the box thinking, Marina. Excellent execution too. I too initially thought that the eye closer to the ROT might be a good option, but certainly works as-is for me.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Not sure what's not to like about this one! It's a great high-key with plenty of detail throughout. Exposure is spot on. Not sure you see many of these around. I'd be thrilled if it were mine

[Greg Oakley]

Congrats Marina - stunning image

[Troy Lim]

Very well executed. Superb shot.

[Sameer Shah]

Excellent whites! And to top it, eye very well captured!