Hello, I'm submitting this picture for your review and critiques. Image was created using the hand held Nikon D750 and the AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm 1-5.6E ED VR. Image was lighted cropped from the top and left side for composition. It was optimized using LR for white balance and photoshop for noise reduction. ISO 1000-1/800 SEC-F/5.6.
I'll really appreciate your comments since I'm a newbie trying to learn and my only training was the 3.5 days Fort DeSoto IPT with Artie that ended this month.
Thanks
Last edited by Juan Tolentino; 10-23-2016 at 12:38 AM.
Welcome to the forum. Don't think you will find a better group of helpful people anywhere else. I like the pose very much and the image quality is great. I am very envious about how close you are to this bird as in New York they are next to impossible to approach. I also like the closed eye. While it is not ideal, it shows that the bird was comfortable with your presence and that is a major plus for any wildlife photographer. I think the bird is too tight in the frame and you would benefit from a looser crop all around, but especially to the left of the bird and above. All the water on the top of the frame is too hot, but the bright line at the top of the frame is especially distracting and I would tone it down. Also I am not sure about the diagonal water line above the bird. Perhaps you could clone the water out using the sand on the left part of the frame. Ideally it would be best to shoot these birds while lying on your belly as it gives a better angle but of course this is not always possible.
I quickly worked on this shot in PS to give you an idea what I mean. All I did was clone out the water on the top right, then add some canvas, did a Content Aware fill and then repositioned the bird a bit in the frame. Also lowered the exposure just a tiny bit on the background. In all it took maybe 2 minutes. Please keep in mind that it is much easier to work on the original TIFF and the results of the cloning would be much better with that. This is just to show what I mean about not having the bird so tight in the frame and not having the bright spot above the bird. Hope this helps.
Thank you Issac, I really appreciated your comments, suggestions and the time you took to improve the image. It looks much better that way. I'm looking forward to improving my images, I know is gonna take some time since, as I mentioned, I'm really new to photography and even newer to Photoshop. But I consider myself a quick learner and since I really love this I'm hoping to be making good images not too far down the road with the help on this forum.
Taking a workshop with Artie was a great first step, and it looks as if his teachings on exposure were well learned on your part. That, and the sharpness is spot on. In this example, you only need to work on composition, and you've already had good advice. Do take advantage of that zoom and go wider - this will give you more pleasing compositions form the get-go, and more room to manoeuvre your subject around in the frame should it start to move.
Thank you for your comments Daniel...Indeed I learned a lot with Artie...I first heard about you there with him and how you were getting such amazingly sharp pictures with your hand held camera-lens combo.
Sleeping on the Beach
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