PDA

View Full Version : Beaver in the green



Steve Foss
06-25-2008, 06:49 PM
I had the pleasure of laying on a river bank in the Superior National Forest and spending parts of several days with a pair of beavers.

Questions I have for you all are: Do the lily pads distract you or add a nice environmental touch? Does the crop work for you?

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Canon 1D Mk2n, Canon 600 f4L IS from beanbag, iso400, 1/400 at f7.1

Steve Canuel
06-25-2008, 07:25 PM
Hi Steve,
The lilly pads don't work for me on this one because of the lack of detail in them. With all the green in the image, they just kind of look like different colored green blobs to me and break up the texture of the rippling water. I think they would look better if they have visible detail. As for the crop, I think it works with the pads in the image. If you took out the pads, I'd move him up more toward the upper left third a bit.
Steve

Jasper Doest
06-26-2008, 01:57 AM
I have to agree with Steve that the lilly pads don't work for me. However....without them your composition wouldn't be as strong as it is now. The crop works for me, but I would have liked this from a lower angle.

D. Robert Franz
06-26-2008, 07:37 AM
I'm not sure about the OOF lily pads they keep drawing my eye away from the beaver. For the lily pads to be effective in an enviromental way I would think a looser compositon would be even more effective. Like the green in the water.

Steve Foss
06-26-2008, 08:35 AM
Thanks, guys. In my own mind I agree with all you say. Just wanted to hear it from someone else to make sure I wasn't imaging things. If I take out the pads, the comp falls apart, but the pads are a distraction. This is a crop, however, so there's some room to play and re-imagine the image's statement.

Jasper, I was about a foot above the water. I'd put my lens right down next to the water, but didn't want to drag a Canon Professional Services 600mm down into the muck. :)

Here's a reposted pano crop. Does this work better by including all the pads? Or do you find the perfectly centered beaver something to avoid?

Roman Kurywczak
06-26-2008, 05:36 PM
Hi Steve,
don't know how you feel about PS "removal"......but i took some off the left on the pano and Patch tooled the remaining lilly pad. this does a few things......removes the beaver out of the center......and removes the lilly pad as a distraction. Funny thing i was going to mention...... which goes against what Jasper was recommending.....a bit higher would give you the whole reflection. Funny about many different opinions.....but i do appreciate feedback..........even if you don't like it!
PS I thought about removing the bright reflections on right...........but I'll leave that decision up to you!

Steve Foss
06-26-2008, 06:03 PM
Roman, to clone or not to clone depends on what I'm trying to accomplish with the image. I have nothing philosophically against it. It's not a very difficult exercise to take the original, clone out the pads and then make a crop based on where I want the beaver to appear in the altered field of green water.

In this case I wanted the pads there because they have some value to my mind as environmental anchors. However, the water is so painterly that you've helped me rethink my intent, so I think I'll give cloning and reframing a try. As a statement of art, IMO, any photograph can be altered in PP to express a photographer's view of the world.

I always appreciate feedback too. I even like it. That's why I post once in awhile on forums, and generally with specific questions when I do.

And speaking of feedback, your clone job in the ULC must have been pretty quick, because a staggered waveline in the extreme ULC was exactly duplicated lower down. Bad Roman! Bad Roman! :D :D :D :D

Roman Kurywczak
06-26-2008, 06:13 PM
3 seconds..........OOOps! 3 demerits!

Steve Foss
06-26-2008, 06:40 PM
I was going to ask how in the world someone who had the temerity to alter another photographer's image unasked wouldn't take care to produce his BEST WORK in the alteration.

But then I saw what must be a glass of Sam Adams (truly mother's milk) in your avatar and couldn't bring myself to say it and ruin a budding fellowship.

JOKE!

:D :D :D

Steve Canuel
06-27-2008, 12:39 AM
Hey Steve,
I like the pano crop because it gives me the impression of the beaver weaving his way through the pads but they still detract for me. The beaver and his reflection, along with the nicely textured water, can easily carry this image without the pads.

Steve