How about something a little different?
Sony A-700~ISO 400~F5.6~1/800 sec Manual Exposure Sony 70-400G@400mm close to full frame
Photoshop CS4/ Topaz Adjust/ Topaz Clean2
Brazos Bend State Park, Texas, Yesterday
Not exactly hand held. I've found that siting down and using my knee works pretty well.
Comments, critiques welcome. I thought about Out of the Box, but with all the wild suff going on over there(I love it) this seemed to belong here.
regards~Bill
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 06-08-2009 at 11:14 PM.
Bill, I like the effect you created and the addition of another color. IMO the image is a bit tight in the front and I would give it a bit more canvas.
DMills; Although I might have been off a bit, compositionally my intent was to have the eye at one of the "rule of thirds" hot spots. If more exact positioning ends up with more room up front, I'd go for it. regards~Bill
William, I like the overall look to this very much. The color in the eye is a nice touch and I like the toned down color of it. Not sure about the canvas as it does feel a bit tight in front. Nicely presented.
Bill, I'm with you on the 1/3 rule. I like to start with that myself, whenever possible. One thought here would be, to increase the canvas around the image, to hold the 1/3 positioning of the eye.
Understand your thoughts, as noted, but it is tight all around. I think that holding the eye position and moving the margins, as needed, would improve its composition.
I have seen images, with exactly your crop that have sold, as well. It is your choice, as the creater, but we just suggest alternatives for your consideration.
William, this is really nice! The definite textures really bring the bird to life.
One way to get a little extra room up front and still maintain that sense of closeness is to turn the camera frame so that the nose goes towards the bottom right corner...this adds a little bit more room and you don't get the feeling that he's going to bump into the wall of the frame.
I do like it as presented but agree that more canvas wouldn't hurt.
Mark, DMills: I have absolutely no problem with a less tight crop, and it it would be simple to change. Not that I'm not convinced, but I was wondering if there is some sort of rule that is as clear cut as the "rule of thirds" that could be used as a guide to how much of a main element should fill a frame? In the case of this image, more or less a close up, the problem is compounded since crop decisions needed to be made to eliminate parts of the bird, and indeed the complete bird was not visible in the original. There was a deliberate crop at the joint of the left leg, yet the left margin decision was not based on anything other that it seemed correct. I'm not saying that there even needs to be a rule, and there are times when"what looks right" has its place, but its so much of a case by case situation that I would like a more of an idea that could be applied(or at least considered) with every image. Did't I hear 75% especially with printing considerations? Good point about the print Mark.
Although tightness of the crop wasn't in my "vision" at all, and it is indeed a very important subject and needs to be considered both while framing the image(in camera) and the subsequent cropping. Thanks for the input! I'll study this further with this image when I get home from work.
regards~Bill
Bill:
I like the way you have taken a rather common bird, at least to those of us in this part of the world, and presented it to us in a creative way. The close up perspective and the texture gives me a sense of intimacy with the bird, and I appreciate that. I do see a white halo around most of the subject, which you might want to eliminate. Also, is that a gap between the upper and lower bill? If so, it shows much brighter than the background, and IMO should be the same tone.
I love these compositional discussions. Lots to learn.
As a minor note for Paul. Although the space between the bill looks brighter than the background, it is in fact an optical illusion caused by the dark bill. I checked out the actually brightness of both the bill space and the background adjacent to the bill, they are the same.
Just another example of how our eyes sometimes fool us!
Paul; I can assure you that the halo is directly caused by the jpeg conversion. I am very aware of halos, and how to avoid them, and how to fix them. I could eliminate it from the jpeg here, but I am much more concerned with the image the jpeg is a representation of! That said, I am extremely concerned with halos in my images before jpeg conversion, so much that I do not use the shadow/highlight tool or unsharp mask, and do have methods to remove them as well. The fact that you noticed it does however show that you have a critical eye, and I appreciate that! regards~Bill