I was hoping to get some feedback on the composition of this image.
The bird in the foreground is a male Red-capped Plover, the birds in the background are Bar-tailed Godwits, which numbered around 500-600 birds.
The concept here I was trying to capture was the loneliness of the single small plover in amongst the mass of Godwits.
I'm not convinced that I've achieved what I wanted, but not sure on where to go from here either, so any feedback would be very greatly received.
Canon 7D 300f4+1.4tc, ISO 640, f10, 1/2000, Av mode
PP: NR on noisy bg, cropped from horizontal, curves etc adjust, USM on fg.
Maybe the Plover is too far away from the Godwits to give a sense of lost amongst other kind. Maybe if the two are a little closer and the Godwits are more in focus?
However I do like this image, it sort of have an art feeling to it, maybe because of the OOF Godwits and pleasing tonal in the background.
I like that with not so much dead space between the plover and Godwits. It gives the effect I was after all in the one area, whereas with mine the fg and bg birds may be too seperated.
I agree that the plover should be closer to the godwits (higher in the frame) to achieve the effect you wanted, but it appears the godwits are on a slight elevation so you might have needed to go underwater to get the angles right...! Bit tough on the camera...
Hi Mark - Like Uncle Gus's thinking - does tell the story better - but probably not something that you could have achieved in camera - difficult to tell without being there.
Like where you were heading. Also maybe in the godwits were not quite so OOF - Could have bumped the ISO to 1600 and stopped down some more to see if it would have added a little more detail to the goodwits.
Or
Taken two separate shots - one of the goodwits and one of the plover and combined them in P.S. - Might have told the story and made a nice wall hanger!!
I suspect the image might get stronger with a bit of a crop. Maybe just at the plover's reflection on the bottom, plus some off the RH side. That would but the plover more in the lower RH corner and create an implied diaganol back to the Godwits (I think). A bit off the top to place the Godwitts in the opposite/upper LH corner my increase the implication of a diaganol between them and the plover. I like where you were going with your story and feel some space between the Plover and Godwits is necessary to tell it. In Gus' recreation the Plover isn't so lonely... he almost seems part of the group.
Last edited by Bob Decker; 10-01-2010 at 08:30 AM.
Nice idea, and interesting discussion. And beautiful little plover all by himself, btw. Some of the suggestions above might work -- perhaps using Gus's approach but not removing quite so much of the intervening space (perhaps just some of the brown island the godwits are standing on?) to reduce the distance between two species; and a bit of crop off the top so the little plover doesn't get lost at the bottom.
Worthwhile putting some work into it.
At present the Godwits in the BG dominate the image. Way to dominant for my taste as the main subject is overpowered.
Thoughts on composition
