Project Feathers - floating trumpeter

[Randy Stout]

Inspired by some of the fine feathers displayed for this month's project, I watched for them when out yesterday. This trumpeter swan feather slowly drifted in front of me, and I spent about 20 minutes working, looking for just the right lighting effect.

D300 500mm f/4 with TC 1.4 f/8 ISO 250 1/400 sec Gitzo/Wimberley

Post: Minor water clean up, selective sharpening, small crop for comp. There are some stubborn jpeg compression artifacts, not present in original.

Advice always appreciated.

Cheers

Randy

[Ivan Sjögren]

Cool image. Love the reflection and the calm water. You did very well geting that awesome light.

[Jim Fenton]

it is a cool image but I find my eyes wanting more of the feather in focus Randy.

Darn calm water!

[Keith Carver]

Love the light, feather positiion, reflection and BG, Randy. It might help to remove the compression artifacts on the top of the feather. DOF seems OK to me as presented. TFS!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Randy, beautiful comp - I love the simplicity and minimalism :)

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Randy, I like the light and calm water. Wold like to see the feather much smaller in the frame at the bottom right - tried to repost it but it doesn't behave like a standard jpeg in photoshop.

[Randy Stout]

Ofer:

Here is the original uncropped version. I felt that the fine details just wouldn't show up in the feather when it was so small in the frame with limited posting size here. I came very close to presenting it this way.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Randy

[Ofer Levy]

Hi Randy,

I much prefer the repost (original frame). I think that adding some canvas and getting the feather even smaller in the frame would work beautifully...;) For me this image is about the mood and I am not worried about the fine details.

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Randy,
I love the fine detail in the feather, the tiny water drops, the stillness and the soft light...and I prefer the uncropped composition.

[Fabs Forns]

I love the mod and light and much prefer the original to the OP, and I'm sure it has to do with DOF or lack of, much less obvious in the original, maybe because of the change of light.
Surprising myself, I could be very concrete at times :)
Thanks for working for the project, very much appreciated :)

[Grace Scalzo]

Here's another take on this. When I look at where the feathers are sharp (Where they are split and touch the water) and trace them upward, they make a sweep "s" curve. As my eye sees that, I would prefer that the feather reside in the lower left corner, with the "S" opening up into the frame. As it is, there is something unsatistying to this comp (to me, anyhow!)