First Critique
Hello everyone,
I Joined today and figure I may as well jump in with both feet.
Attached is a picture of a female Mallard that I found hiding beside a busy pathway. Her mate was beside her, I saw him before I noticed her. I was surprised that they hadn't been attacked by any of the passing dogs or people. They weren't very concerned with me taking their pictures. I left them alone but when I walked back an hour later they had moved on.
Thank you for looking,
Clive
Welcome aboard Clive! You got yourself down to a great low angle for this image - that is a good thing, however I would have preferred it if you had pointed the lens more to your left to put the empty space in front of where the duck is looking instead of behind. Image could go lighter. Either fill-flash or positive EC would have done the trick in-camera (preferred method)...or alternatively during post processing. Also, another round of sharpening would really spruce things up sharpness-wise. I like the wide open eye, and the bits of greenery add some nice small splashes of colour.
Happy New Year, and looking forward to more.
P.S. Don't forget to add the specs along with your image...it can really help for critiquing :-)
Thank you Daniel,Originally Posted by Daniel Cadieux
It didn't occur to me to add any of the technical details. Here they are:
Nikon D70s
70 - 300 VR Lens
280mm
ISO 400
F5.6
1/125s
No Ev Compensation
No Flash, No Tripod, Matrix metering, Program mode
Take care,
Clive
Red carpet welcome, Clive, I hope we can help you improve your skills. With a little patience and taking critique with an open mind, you can go a long way.
Great suggestions by Daniel. May I suggest you visit the Educational Resources Forum, where you will find a lot of valuable tips and tutorials.
Note to Firefox users: There's an add-on called Exif Viewer that's pretty neat. Right-click on any image online, and if the image has exif info embedded, as this one does, it'll display in a pop-up screen like this:
Exif IFD0
* Camera Make = NIKON CORPORATION
* Camera Model = NIKON D70s
* Picture Orientation = normal (1)
* X-Resolution = 300/1 = 300
* Y-Resolution = 300/1 = 300
* X/Y-Resolution Unit = inch (2)
* Software/Firmware Version = Ver.1.00
* Last Modified Date/Time = 2008:04:27 17:199
* Y/Cb/Cr Positioning (Subsampling) = co-sited / datum point (2)
Exif Sub IFD
* Exposure Time (1 / Shutter Speed) = 10/1250 second = 1/125 second = 0.008 second
* Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 56/10 = F5.6
* Exposure Program = normal program (2)
* Exif Version = 0221
* Original Date/Time = 2008:04:27 17:19
* Digitization Date/Time = 2008:04:27 17:19
* Components Configuration = 0x01,0x02,0x03,0x00 / YCbCr
* Compressed Bits per Pixel = 2/1 = 2
* Exposure Bias (EV) = 0/6 = 0
* Max Aperture Value (APEX) = 50/10 = 5
Max Aperture = F5.66
* Metering Mode = pattern / multi-segment (5)
* Light Source / White Balance = unknown (0)
* Flash = Flash did not fire
* Focal Length = 2800/10 mm = 280 mm
* Last Modified Subsecond Time = 80
* Original Subsecond Time = 80
* Digitized Subsecond Time = 80
* FlashPix Version = 0100
* Colour Space = sRGB (1)
* Image Width = 0 pixels
* Image Height = 0 pixels
* Image Sensing Method = one-chip color area sensor (2)
* Image Source = digital still camera (DSC)
* Scene Type = directly photographed image
* Colour Filter Array (CFA) Geometric Pattern = 0x00,0x02,0x00,0x02,0x02,0x01,0x01,0x00
* Custom Rendered = normal process (0)
* Exposure Mode = auto exposure (0)
* White Balance = auto (0)
* Digital Zoom Ratio = 1/1 = 1
* Focal Length in 35mm Film = 420
* Scene Capture Type = standard (0)
* Gain Control = n/a (0)
* Contrast = normal (0)
* Saturation = high (2)
* Sharpness = normal (0)
* Subject Distance Range = unknown (0)
Exif IFD1
* Compression = JPEG compression (6)
* X-Resolution = 300/1 = 300
* Y-Resolution = 300/1 = 300
* X/Y-Resolution Unit = inch (2)
* Y/Cb/Cr Positioning (Subsampling) = co-sited / datum point (2)
Hi Clive,
The first thing -- well, two things -- that caught my eye: The image is underexposed and it has a cyan cast. Both are easily fixed with a levels adjustment.
Daniel, thank you for the comments. I have tried to lighten the image and adjusted the position by cropping out some of the right side. I made sharpening the last step after I had cropped and re-sized for posting.
David I also adjusted the levels specifically setting white. That made a huge change in the look of the of the picture. Thank you for pointing out the Exif viewer for Firefox. It is my browser of choice.
Fabs thank you for pointing me to the Education resources. I can see that I have lots to read.
I am attaching my retouched image.
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