B&W GBH

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO640~F6.3~1/1600 sec~manual exposure~9-26-2009~Brays Bayou, Houston, Texas~CS4/Topaz Adjust3(small detail preset)/Topaz Clean2
added gradient background,converted to black and white(CS4)
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[denise ippolito]

Bill, I like the gradient BG. The bird looks too tight in the frame for me. I like the effect and the details. I am seeing some noise?The bird seems a bit flat w/o much tonal range.

[Julie Kenward]

Bill, I would agree with Denise on all points and add that I'm kind of sorry the feet got cut off as this is really an interesting pose. That said, I do see where this could take on an "ink on paper" look with just a little tweaking or perhaps a charcoal filter might do the trick. It's very close to what you would see on a note card done to look like a sketch.

I think from the tonal range aspect, a bit of dodging and burning would save the day - just blacken the black areas and whiten the whites and see if that doesn't give it a bit more pop. The texture of the feathers and the overall pose really make this something to develop further - it's a fascinating look at a GBH.

[Christopher Miller]

Hi Bill, Totally agree with Denise and Julie's critiques. I can see some banding in the BG which I would remove. It's a nice image with very interesting textures and pose, and definitely worth exploring further.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Thanks for the comments, and I not only appreciate the honest assessment, but agree. I didn't do my due diligence on this one, and forgot that converting to B&W isn't as simple as dropping the saturation. As far as the lack of feet, well, I have plenty of images with the whole bird; the question here is how to crop if I don't want the entire bird, and it seems I wasn't successful here in that regards either. Don't worry, I'll be back(like you will worry)! regards~Bill