Photographed this Horned Grebe is winter plumage a few months ago in overcast conditions at Great Kills Harbor in Staten Island, New York.
Canon 7d2 and Canon 500mm f4 ii. ISO 400, SS 1/3200, f 5.6
Converted in DPP 4, added a bit of canvas to the top. Normal adjustments in PS. Used NIK tonal contrast and white neutralizer filter and sharpened with NIK output sharpener.
I was a bit high on a jetty and could not get a low as I would have liked. Suggestions on the crop? All other comments and suggestions always welcomed and appreciated.
Hi Isaac, nice, clean image with a decent reflection. Image quality looks good. I would however have a look to see if you can clean up the reflection in the eye, and if it was mine I may be tempted to add a little more space behind the bird. TFS
Like the comp, but would like a bit more space on top.
Our Grebe here in Africa does not have such a bright red eye?
Love the implied movement and blurred reflection.
Thanks for the comment Richard. IO'm curious why you would want to clean up the reflection in the eye? What exactly would you do? Remove catchlight? What would be the reason for that? Also, I considered adding canvas to the left but the problem I had was that the ripples certainly would not continue in the same manner as they truly would. Don't think it would look right although I agree that more room to the left would be better.
So you would prefer less space on the bottom? I liked the symmetry of the image as is. Could you explain what about giving more room on top and less on bottom would be better? Just trying to understand the reasoning. Appreciate it.
The red in the eye is like this. Crazy saturated in real life. I actually brought the saturation and luminance of the reds down a bit as well just because they are so crazy red.
Last edited by Isaac Grant; 05-09-2016 at 02:20 PM.
Hi Isaac, I normally leave the catch lights as I find them as that is usually my preference. That said, a cleaner, less busy catchlight e.g. A single reflection vs two reflections can look better and possibly enhance the image. It may be my eyes but this catchllight looked like it was in two places. Totally up to you. Cloning is one option. Hope that helps. Rich
Thanks for the explanation. I understand what you mean. That is not something that bothers me at all but it is something that I have seen mentioned many times so I appreciate the explanation.
Very pleasing image, I find the composition makes me slightly uneasy, it doesn't look bad but it doesn't look quite balanced to me. I wonder if a 4:3 crop would work well?? You have also given me something to consider hen you mention
ed the white neutraliser filter.