Swan

[Jamie Douglas]

I took at visit to Stanley Park today to hunt down some Otters I came across the other week but no luck so made the most of the outing by testing out my new 7D on some Swans. Let me know what you think. Techs below. Edited in Canon DPP and PS CS3, mild noise reduction done using imagenomic. Thoroughly enjoying the step up from my xti and the ISO performance is coming in handy during the cloudy overcast days.

Camera Model Canon EOS 7D
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 200.0mm
Shooting Date/Time 10/01/2010 1:32:04 PM

Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/1250
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.8
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
ISO Speed 400
Exposure Compensation 0 - could probably have knocked this down a touch.
AF Mode AI Servo AF
AF area select mode Automatic selection

[Bill Dix]

Jamie - Lovely image. The whites look good on my screen, but I'm sure others will chime in. Bird is almost centered in the frame, but I'm torn as to how I might have composed otherwise. Were it mine I might consider taking just a bit off the right and bottom. In any event, I like it as posted.

[Bob Decker]

I like how this image is almost monotone. The subduded dark colors nicely contrast the stark, white bird. I do see quite a bit of noise in the background. You might try running a filter to bring that down a bit... or perhaps actually convert to B&W where noise sometimes takes on an artsey/film grain appeal. I have a hunch a little shadow/highlight adjustment would pull a bit more detail out of the whites. Overall a very pleasing image.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Jamie,
I like the capture...agree on the noise reduction in the background. You might also lighten the area around the eye, its too dark, and selective sharpen it. As far as compositional balance, you can crop from the top to make it into a tighter pano, or crop 1/4 from the left side of the frame and extend the canvas to the right to give the subject more room in the direction of the head turn...keep up the good work...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Although the image is pretty much centered, I still like it as presented in the frame because of the reflection. IMO taking from the bottom will reduce the reflection. Just my taste on the composition. Whitesalso look good on my monitor.
Regards,

[Bob Decker]

Looking at it at home on a calibrated monitor I rescend my comment about using shadow/highlight to pull more detail into the whites... there's a healthy dose of detail there already.

[Jamie Douglas]

Thanks for the pointers folks. I was stumped at what to do about the crop as well Bill. Gus has made a good comment that I now see regarding extending the right of the canvas. When I now look at the image I see a little too much space to the left and agree with adding more space on the right. It was the ripples in the water that made me go with the crop shown above.

Thanks Bob. Whites are difficult on monitors. The details change depending on the angle I look at my monitor but that's something I am gonna have to bear in mind when editing.

Gus - I wish swans had larger eyes. Let me see what my novice editing skills can come up with.

P.S Thanks for the advice folks. Since discovering this site I feel like I my skills are coming along nicely.

I can add canvas but what next once you have the extra space? Looks like I will need to copy some image across and rotate it to align the ripples. Help!

[David Thomasson]

Very nice sense of graceful tranquility here. I played around with a few crops and came up with this. Also varied the light a bit to place a little more
emphasis on the head area, and pulled out feather details a bit more. Excellent capture.

[Jamie Douglas]

David, this works for me. Thank you for the new perspective, I think I will go with this for the time being.

P.S How do you move the light using CS? if that's what you used.

[David Thomasson]

P.S How do you move the light using CS? if that's what you used.

I'm using CS4, but you can do this in CS: Open a hue/sat adjustment layer, pull the lightness down as shown, and use a huge, soft brush to paint with black and restore the original light where you want it.

[Jamie Douglas]

Please delete this comment

[Jamie Douglas]

Again my PC froze.
Please delete comment

[Gail Spitler]

This is one lovely image and David's re-post and explanation of how to do this are super. Thanks to you both.
Cheers
Gail

[Jamie Douglas]

Did some playing around based on folks comments and David's repost. Not quite as good as Davids but here is what I came up with.

[David Thomasson]

I like it, Jamie. Nice improvement in the feather details.

[Alfred Forns]

Great suggestion David !!!!

Crop wise I like what David did, with these it can almost be centered but off to the left works just fine, the one thing I would change which is not possible now it the head position, seems to always look better with the head square to the camera !! Mighty fine image and love the overall feel !!!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Nice thread, great comments.

[Jamie Douglas]

Thanks folks. I have definetly benefited from all the comments and learnt a few new skills along the way. New Years goal is IOTW before 2011.