Highkey - does it work?

This is an image I made at the Farne Islands.
There was a lot of fog an rain and I created that highkey image of the arctic tern.
I am not sure, if it works?

What can I do, to make it work?

It works for me, I like the mood and pose in this one. I would go for a tighter crop, though.

I agree on the tighter crop and would usually not like an image like this as well as a clearer image. BUT, I do like this one. It has a very ethereal feel and mood to it, especially with the tern's pose and the translucence of the feathers, etc.

Works for me!

Thanks for looking at the picture.
When you would crop it, where would you place the bird? I played with different compositions and am not really satisfied with it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rosl Roessner

Thanks for looking at the picture.
When you would crop it, where would you place the bird? I played with different compositions and am not really satisfied with it.

---

I would place him somewhere in the upper right (just a bit off center) because of the look down and slight head turn to the left. Something like this maybe.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Axel Hildebrandt

I would place him somewhere in the upper right (just a bit off center) because of the look down and slight head turn to the left.

---

Axel "stole" my words.
Very nice picture.
Kjeld

Thank You Axel,
this is what I was playing with; I thought that the bird needs more space in the direction where it looks at.
But I realise that I have a tendency to give the birds too much room in my pictures

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rosl Roessner

Thank You Axel,
this is what I was playing with; I thought that the bird needs more space in the direction where it looks at.
But I realise that I have a tendency to give the birds too much room in my pictures

---

That is better than cropping them too tight. :) You could also play with the black levels for a bit more contrast. When you raise it to about 50 the image looks quite different. I'm not sure though if you would like it better.

Hi Rosl,

Very nice job on Axel's crop. I would like to see the head blacks a little darker. Go to Image>Adjustments>Selective color and from the drop menu select Blacks and add a few points to the blacks. That should look better.

I like High Key images a lot!

I LOVE this, Rosl! I like it better with the space around it that you have in your original post, but do like the off-center placement. I think it's an amazing photo, one that I would consider buying if I were shopping for photographs.

Rosl, love the tonal ranges in this image as well as composition. I think any attempt at making it more defined (increasing the sharpness, contrast or separating bird from the background by color variations) will take away a lot from the image. Personally I think blurring the image using gaussian blur a bit will add to the abstract feel.