Swan at the local

[PeterCollins]

Hi All,

Been abit of a lurker here for a while and taken bit of courage to post an image of my own here.

I am a keen amatuer so anything that you guys can add to help me go onwards and upwards is welcomed :)

here goes



I have sharpened in CS4, adjusted curves but nothing major as I am not that hot on cs4 yet

Taken on:

Nikon D2x,
AWB
80 - 200 f2.8 @ f8
ISO 100
Handheld
Ev 0
Center Metering

Any help or feedback is greatly welcomed :)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Peter, Welcome to ETL.Lets look at the positives first. Pretty good exposure capturing the detail in the subject.
The head angle is good.
Regarding the comp I would of either made this more of a portrait or included the whole bird rather than cut the bottom. Room is OK in the front and back of the bird but feel you need more room on top. Finally a catchlight in the birds eye would have dilineated the eye better.
Looking forward to seeing more....

[Dave Leroy]

Good for you to post Peter.
This is definitely the website to learn about photography. It is excellent.

Very nice exposure and details in the feathers.
As a suggestion for a composition, I might crop from bottom to just above tail and from right to remove all of the water on that side. A bit more room on top might be nice also.

Nice clean bg.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Peter,

Greetings & welcome. Nice color contrast and colors in general. A harsh light is tough to work with, good management of the whites considering.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Bill Dix]

Hi Peter. Welcome! You've come to the right place to learn. Nice detail in the whites, considering the harsh light. Agree with above comments that it would have been nice to include the whole bird, with a bit more room above (and maybe to the left). And catchlight would give it some personality. Good beginning!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Peter - big warm welcome to BPN - Do not hesitate to jump right in and comment on other peoples images - all we ask is you say what you like or dont like about a image - no better faster way to learn!!

Nice first post - one thing to remember black and white birds are difficult in anything but soft light - you have held the whites here fairly well. Some more space at the bottom to include the whole bird would have improved, You generally want your crop to be deliberate, not so it feels like you have just framed the image poorly.

Do you have your over exposure blinkies turned on - and do you make use of your histogram on the LCD??
Arties book has a wealth of information as does the educational resources forum.

Looking forward to seeing more :)

[Alfred Forns]

Big Warm Welcome Peter !!!!

Agree with comments particularly the extra room !!! Shooting wise for any white bird your best ally is soft light, early/late in the day. When the sun is strong the contrast goes up and the camera is unable to capture the tonal range !!! Overcast days are also good and should be taken advantage !!!

Here is a different crop which you could try with this image, lighten the neck and extended canvas on top.

[PeterCollins]

Hello all,

many thanks for all the comments greatly appreciated :)

will bear alot of this in mind when i am out and about in London this weekend!

Lance - I use the histogram but i do not tend to use the blinkies i suppose thats a habbit i should get into!!