Its not that I'm a big fan of square formats, its just that many times a square format just doesn't work. This may very well be one of those. From a strictly graphic arts point of view I like this image. It is simple and has an interesting geometrical composition( at least that is what my aim was).
I was a little too aggressive in Noise Ninja, but it seemed to add to the graphic quality. Heck, I just got the program and wanted to use it on something. Come to think of it there wasn't much noise in the image in the first place. Oh well. Comments and criticism would be appreciated as usual. ~Bill
Sony A-700 Tamron 200-500mm@460mm 1/1600sec F6.3 +0.3 EV
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 08-03-2008 at 02:34 PM.
Bill, I like the square format, especially for this image. I would like for the head to be a little further up and the entire tail inside the frame but it's very dramatic as presented!
You need to try and do some work on the eye so that it is more visible. As for the crop, I believe that you need to crop to the other tail corner... Where, when, and what species?
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Arthur: I believe it is a Caspian Tern, full breeding colors, shot June 7, 2008, Quintana, Texas mud-flats at 11:18 AM. I just tried cropping to the other tail corner, and I think it is an improvement. Then again, I tried Julie's suggestion as well, showing the complete tail. The fact that I have my mind set on making it square does limit compositional possibilities, but I think the that one of these possibilities is the way to go. I'll see what I can do to make the eye more visible. This is a problem I often have with terns with black heads that cover the eye area, and I definitely need to find a solution, if not by shooting technique, then by post processing. Thanks again. ~Bill
While I work out the suggestions on the image, I thought I'd post the identical bird just before the fly over. As you can see the wing tips are clipped. The horror. Basically full frame except I cropped the top and bottom. ~Bill
One more thing about the ID. I am certain there were both Royal as well as Caspian Terns in the area. I am basing the ID on this bird the fact that the bill of the Caspian is redder, and seems somewhat more robust than the Royal. However the color here may appear redder than it really was due to lighting, so I'm not 100% sure.
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 08-03-2008 at 07:44 PM.
Actually I was thinking about Al when I posted it. Anyway, I'm working on the first one now. Sticking some wingtips on this one is pretty easy compared with fixing the eye problem in the first image. later~Bill
Bill the eye is an easy fix at least easier than the wing tips. With the new plug in Viveza you could probably fix it in seconds !!!
For your original image posted I would like seeing a tighter crop and different exposure. Seems underexposed which and if you try opening noise will appear. I like seeing alternate in camera crops. btw exposure wise you are photographing the shaded side of the bird and one over is a common compensation.
Thanks again Al. I went back and looked at the raw image and the exposure was as it appears in the original post. In other words I haven't lightened it yet and noise might not be too much of a problem. I agree +1 would have been better. I tried the tighter crop suggested by Art (crop to other tale corner), and it seems to work. I'll google Viveza and check it out. regards~Bill
Tern Flight Capture Close-up
