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I'm going with O as the best and then P and then N. I think N is slightly away from us and P is turned a bit too far towards us.
Rachel
Artie, O is definitely the gold medal winner for me. For silver, I will give P a slight edge over N. With bird looking straight out of the frame, my eye also wanders out. P is a little extreme, yes, but I still like it more than N.
Worst to best: N, P, O. Although N and O look similar at first glance, as I looked more the tradeoffs among the 3 determined my choice and put P in the middle. N is the worst because the bird is looking slightly away, the catchlight is behind the pupil, the bill seems a tad foreshortened (farshortened?). P has the catchlight nicely at the front of the eye, but the bill is definitely foreshortened and the right angle juncture of the lower bill and neck is unappealing. O strikes the best balance, the catchlight is just in front of the pupil, the bill is nicely proportioned, the curve where the neck meets the lower bill is pleasing.
I think P,O,N. I like p. I am partial to the look right at the camera. Has a more inquisitive look.
With the best first, I say O, P, N.
It looks like the body may be turned very slightly away from the camera and head is square to body in N therefore a bit away from camera.
P gives a more full view of head and better viewer contact, and O looks about perfect to me.
Dave
From best to last ... for me ... O, N, P. O is the most personal and inviting, feels very intimate, great HA.
I had a bit of a time deciding between N & P for next place, & finally decided that in P the HA was too much, and tended to foreshorten the lovely beak. N is a nice-enough portrait, although lacking the emotional engagement. It seem that the body is turned slightly away, and the HA is either in line with the body, or perhaps a degree or so turned away ... gives a nice view of the face (great for an id shot).
If this were by vote, then the order I suggested might come in second as only a couple of us went with P as the worst followed by N. I think most of us said that O was the best. Artie, if I have N and P reversed, that is a preference for N by a bit over P, can you say why this is wrong please? Thanks.
Jon
Jon Saperia
My two cents :) N is a clear delete. The bird's head is turned slightly but definitely away from the plane of the imaging sensor. If you picked this as your favorite or even as your second favorite, you need to go back and study the basics in the various ER threads. That leaves us with O and P. Both are keepers with O my favorite by a fair margin as P is borderline too much head turn towards us. Do note that the semi-plover's body is angled ever-so-slightly away from us.
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Jon, In N, the bird's head is angled slightly away from us (as is the body). With the body angled ever-so-slightly away from us a square head angle is the very minimum required..... While N looks OK after a quick look careful study reveals that the head is indeed angled away from us.
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Almost forgot, thanks all for playing and congrats to those who nailed it.
Here is image Q.
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And here is Image R. My only concern is with the amount of head rotation of the adult bear: which is the better image, Q or R? And why?
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Having agreed, mostly ;), with the previous ones I thought I'd join in. I like Q better than R due to the fact the adults head is angled slightly down and towards the camera. This allows the bears left ear to be just visible over the head, which I think makes for a more pleasing shot. Also like the dribble from the salmon in Q.
Cheers,
Brent
I like Q more Artie. It looks more relaxed....enjoying a nice meal kinda relaxed. In R, for some reason, it doesn't appear that way. But I think the face is lit slightly better in R. BTW, why vertical?
Note to K and Brent: look carefully at the light on the eye in each image....
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I like R better lighting is better and the eyes are brighter
K (sorry, I forgot what your friends call you :confused:) A horizontal would have worked here to but I prefer the front-end vertical in this and similar situations for the following reason: if I am working in horizontal format and the adult raises it's head I am out of business.... Front-end vertical COMPs are discussed in detail in the chapter on advanced composition and image design in ABP II (916 pages on CD only).
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Thx Artie. I understand why you went with vertical. yes, I agree that eye is better lit in R.
KD
All good. Here is the lesson: head angle is almost always about the way the light strikes the face (and the eye...)
Remind me of what your friend's call you....
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KD, Thanks. So easy that I forgot. But I will not do that again.
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R certainly does have a slightly more well lit eye, or perhaps it is just you can see more of the eye due to the angle of the head? The eye and nose would be on the same plane as the camera. I do however, like the profile of Q. The eye still shows a good catchlight, but perhaps with more shadow around the 'eyebrow', and I do like that tilt slightly towards the camera (and down at the cub). Both shots are of course stunning and I'd keep them both!
As I go through these examples and get some right, and some wrong, I look at what I have done and find some things that are clearly pretty good (or at least I think so) and some things that are not very good. The question is where is the best place to post these questions which are about head angle or other compositional elements you mention in this forum? Should I post examples here or would it be better to do all posting of this kind in the 'eager to learn' forum?
Thanks
/jon
Jon Saperia
ETL would be perfect. Be sure to send me a link and I will tend to it if I am home :) Or Avian. Or as here, Wildlife. No head angles for plants...
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Thanks. I will post some when i get back from my road trip to the ETL.
/jon
Jon Saperia
How does one take a road trip to ETL??? :confused: :)
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See, I have not been able to do any photography for a while and it is messing with my head :-)
Jon Saperia
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I will admit that when you look at Q and R individually that it is a difficult call. But when you look at an animated GIF or when you see the images appear one and then the next in your browser, this one is child's play: in Image R, the bear's head is rotated a bit towards us and that lights the eye up beautifully. And for me everything else is about equal.
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On your #131 reply GIF do you have Q and R reversed?
For me Q is the image that tilts toward me. And Q shows tip of left ear that makes the head 3 dimensional. Although R shows perhaps better right eye lighting, but really really hard to see.
Regards - Tom
Hi Tom, There is no "reversed" in the GIF. It runs forever and the images are not labeled. As for Q and R, I have deleted Q and added R to the collection, but thanks for sharing your thoughts. For me, the differences are huge and the tiny bit of ear showing in Q did not impress me :) We will need to agree to disagree on this one.
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Furhtermore, in R, the entire snout is well lit. In Q, with the head rotated away from us, the entire snout is dark. And in R, the teeth are showing a bit and the bear looks to be smiling. Not so in Q.
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Image S.
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Image T. Which head angle do you prefer and why? Again I believe that there is a clear choice here :)
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I prefer image T because the HA is shallower by a degree or 2. The HA in S seems 2-3 degrees off to my eye.
Andrew
Image S, You sense the bird is communicating with you
Well, somebody got it right at least as I see it:)
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I say S. I like the head angle and the eye contact.
I vote for "B." Might not meet the strict HA rules but it's a more appealing image.
I think S would meet the strict requirements of the HA commando force! LOL!
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Would have to say image S is the better of the two. The bird is alert and meeting the viewers eye.
I think the HA on S is better than T, although what I am most drawn to is the difference in the eye from S to T.
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In pane #21, C for me, there is more ''life'' on the eye. pane #22, the bird is more focused on whatever it has on its bill, that's important to me as well, but pretending I haven't seen image D, I will say C is my favorite.
Hey JC, The answer to the second quiz is in Pane #37 on page 1. See how you did! The most recent quiz started in Panes 135 and 136 above.
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For me S is the winner here. In T I have the feeling the HA is a touch away from you and because of this the eye region is not so well lit.
S has to be the winner. HA is better with the head tilted slightly towards the camera. Face is well lit and angle of the bill pleasing. The striking thing for me is also the eye in both images - with the eye in T being slightly closed (as the bird is about to blink). This is distracting for me, and something that always makes me hit 'delete' with my own images...you'll probably say T has the better HA now :D.
Cheers,
Brent
No Brent, You are correct and so is most everyone above. Good job. T is a delete for me too because the bird is squinting. But here's the rub, nobody came up with the correct head angle reason for picking S. And it has been covered before so here we go: with the bird in both frames angled slightly towards us, the head needs to be on straight. In T the bird's head is parallel to the imaging sensor but with the bird itself angled towards us that is not good enough, in fact, it is not good. In T the bird's head is actually turned away from the body angle. NG.
To become a head angle expert folks need to learn to consider a wide variety of poses. That's why I started this thead :)
Congrats to all who got it right (for the wrong reasons, I think...)
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