Hello, Al. I'll take a stab at this critique.......the subjects are very beautiful. The fact that the one in front is out of focus detracts as does their overlap. As with most ducks/shorebirds, a lower shooting angle would be nicer, if possible. THe oof one is level, the other is not and is turning away from you. I do like the color palette that was available due to the gray sky...compliments the ducks' colors nicely.
Last edited by Grace Scalzo; 02-15-2008 at 09:17 AM.
Reason: Grammer, again.
I'll jump in, bad points first :D The most annoying thing to me is the out of focus bird in the foreground. I also think that framing is too tight? Finally a lower view point would have been better. Now the good : I really like the overall colour rendering in this image, the second bird is tack sharp and shows some lovely details, the rain drops at the surface and the droplets on the feathers are a real plus!
At the time it was taken hey? I believe it would have been impossible to get both birds in focus considering you seemed to be pretty close and you had to deal with little light. Anyways... even stopped down to f/16 I am wandering... no, not possible :) So if I had to have one bird in focus only I would choose the one in the foreground. How does it sound? :)
Mostly you should have concentrated your focus on the near bird as this one is your real subject. He's closer, the head angle is better and there are no obstructions.The fact that the far bird would be then rendered OOF wouldn't have killed the composition. Low angle of course and all that but then you would have to get out of the car. Next time don't drive --walk? Get exercise and a great picture---voila!!!
I think most of the issues have been mentioned. I wonder if focusing on the near bird, removing the then oof back bird and adding canvas to the bottom to visually move the near bird up in the frame? Not the same as shooting low but I think would improve it?
Neat water drops, very neat ducks! I think the image could use a bit of punch/pop even with it being rainy and less than good light.
Great ideas All that I had in mind was covered !!!!!
First biggest flaw is the front bird oof It kills the image No way it could work
Also it is tight Birds do not look right
Overlapping is a bit annoying and the second bird does not have the head angle
Sopping down to f 16 or more would not have gotten both in focus
Lower angle would have improved the image ...... but id not want to lay on the wet grass pouring rain !!!
Adding canvas would have improved the image
I like the lines Jim placed on the image Intersection points are strong compositional areas !!!
I haven't read other critiques so here goes. 1) On checking pix see that first bird well out of focus so quickly stop down to the max to get them while together 2) Focus on head of nearest bird and do a burst shot. 3) If birds still together do another burst shot. 4) Check both sets of images images 5) Depending on whether birds still together and results so far either repeat or focus on nearest bird and wait for clear view without other bird in BG if possible and with focussed bird's head looking towards me then burst shot while bird still looking.
Re this image shown above I like the focus on the back bird and water on its back. Would do a vertical crop on that bird to just above other bird's head and leave it at that as a keeper till I could get something better.
The two things I keep coming back to would be more room on all 4 sides and moving to the left to separate the heads better and get them more coming at you.
Great excersise Al. Please continue doing this. It helps us to learn better composition and internalize the areas we should concentrate on when we're framing a picture of our own. Great rendition Gus!
Critique this image !!!!
