Snoozing Avocet

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon 500/4 + 1.4x

1/1250 sec f/10 ISO 400

Levels and sharpening (didn't see the halo when I uploaded, but do here -- a bit too much sharpening, I guess) in CS6. Slight crop for comp.

I was shooting a cluster of birds and forgot to open my aperture ... sigh. Fortunately he wasn't moving so I got away with this SS.

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[kevin Hice]

Nice pic Ian You had plenty of shutter speed for a still subject,I really don't like the crop I think it is too tight on the right .I know the bird is looking back but i still think I would have gone the opposite side or left more to the right. The bird is quite large in the frame. needs more room.Maybe even a tad more on top and bottom I don't see the halo on my screen.Luv the water. I am new to this and will see what the experts say on the crop.

[Doug West]

I think the space on the right hand side is ok. I'm just wondering if maybe a little off
the bottom and a little more on the top. It's hard for me to tell on this screen I'm using
off a laptop.

Doug

[Randall Farhy]

Ian- the Halo does not appear on my workstation, though is barely visible on the laptop-which tells me you nailed the output. As an aside, reading glasses can show anomalies that might not be visible otherwise, especially on less than optimal monitors. Perhaps a little more room all around, perhaps a slightly more centered position would help, putting the head on or closer to a thirds line. It's a pleasing image, tones and saturation are good, maybe just a tad green (very slight) and a little flat. -R

[Diane Miller]

A very nice portrait -- interesting position, sharp and well exposed. I could go with a little more room on the right, and maybe you could take just a little off the bottom, just enough to get rid of the darker streak through the reflection of the leg on the right. My instinct would be to minimize anything pulling the eye down there.

The ripples could indicate a slight CW rotation is needed -- you'd need to try it to see if it looks right. They're all you have for a horizon, but that may make where the legs enter the water all wrong. I'm not sure which is the near leg. And ripples aren't always horizontal.

I don't see a halo, either -- interesting that it could be monitor-dependent.

[Clyde Hopper]

Hi Ian , I studied this photo looking for the Halo . I'm not seeing a Halo . The Photo Is enjoyable to view ,But I do feel the crop could be tweaked as mentioned . (Adding a small bit of canvas to the right side ,would be "My" choice .

[Ian Cassell]

Thank you very much for critiquing, everyone. Interestingly, I'm seeing the halo here at work again tonight (especially along the bird's back) on a standard Dell monitor, but don't see at at home either on my laptop or on either of my IPS monitors (I looked when I got home from work last night as I couldn't believe I missed that).

As for the crop, I wrestled with that quite a bit. I do have a bit of landscape available to play. I put the head up where it was looking for the ROT corner, but I think I overdid it and put it too far to the viewer's right (it's closer to 25% in). I liked having some space for him to look in to and the angle formed by the head was pleasing to me - looking sort of to the viewers lower left corner of the image. I will play a bit more and see if adding a bit on my RHS improves it.

Diane, do you really think it needs rotation? I dropped a vertical line from the leg on viewer's right (far leg) into the reflection and it looks symmetric to me, but my glasses are long overdue for replacement.

[Diane Miller]

The leg reflection does look symmetrical -- I was just responding (emotionally) to the waves, which might not really be horizontal. Scrub my comment -- you did it the right way -- rationally! :S3:

[Ian Cassell]

Wow, Diane ... first time I've been accused of being rational :P

[Diane Miller]

Apologies!! Not my style, either!!

[Iain Barker]

Nice image Ian. I agree the composition needs tweaking but am not sure how. Have you tried including a little more space left and top to place the bird more in the lower right? If I zoom in I can just see a slight lighter line just above the top of the wing. Not sure if is it just the difference in contrast though. I really have to look for it though so I don't think there is a problem with a halo.

[Ian Cassell]

I tried a different crop and put the eye closer to the ROT position. Any better? This puts the Avocet close to dead-center in the frame and I usually try to avoid that.

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[Diane Miller]

I much prefer this new crop -- it is centered but it is in a static pose and doesn't really need room to move into. For me, there is less tension with the added room.

[Randall Farhy]

Ian, absolutely an improvement over the first post. As diane noted, being ~centered isn't always a bad thing as long as the attention is focused there. Here, the eye/head is where the viewer is drawn first, then the body and water around the leg. I've cropped it just a little more to make the bird appear as a larger element compared to the water surrounding it, though either way works.

[Sandy Witvoet]

Hi Ian! I'm a bit late to the "party"... This is lovely. Beautiful BG and serenity to the image.
I do like the bit of extra space to the right. Saw just the slightest halo on the bird's back... but did have to really look for it!
I think what's prompted the crop discussion is that although the bird is snoozing... the legs are in somewhat of a "walking" position, (so, he's "sleep-walking?" just kidding) which seemed to require a bit more room on the right.... Randall's slight crop off the bottom works well.

[Missy Mandel]

Ian, I really like your image and without reading through the list of comments I would have thought that your original crop was fine. I struggle myself with the "perfect crop" and I am just realizing that the rules are meant to be broken. Great job!

[Tim Harding]

I like Randall's crop overall the best - the image has balance to my eye. These are such pretty birds - great job!