Snowy Coming Down
Sony A850~Sony 70-400G@400mm~ISO 1000~1/2500sec~F7.1~manual exposure~HH~ near sunset~1-8-2011~West Houston, Texas~CS5
It is supposed to actually snow tonight in Houston, so I thought the usual snow related thing coming out of the sky seemed appropriate, but of the egret variety. comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill
my website
Last edited by WIlliam Maroldo; 02-04-2011 at 12:13 AM.
Bill, I really like this landing approach image. The light coming through the spread wing's is gorgeous. I find the darker green band in the FG a bit distracting.
Hi Bill. This is a very nice image. The whites look good. I also like the wing spread. There are some halos around the bird (his left side most noticeably), that you might want to look at.
Hey Bill, I love the flight pose, the dangling legs and those yellow feet. I also like the light through the wings and the blue sky. I'm not crazy about the bottom portion of the Bg and the fact the horizon line is so close to the middle.
Peter
Good points made. Levina; what you are observing is a sharpening halo. I generally do sharpening (smart sharpen in CS) after downsizing the image for the web since simply reducing the size of an image reduces percieved sharpness( since information about detail, etc, is lost in the process). There are things that can be done to remedy or avoid the halo, but since it is not a problem with the un-resized image, this would strictly be done for web presentation.
Ian. Good point about the distracting greens in the foreground. I did not have a problem with them, but in any case very easy to fix in post-processing.
Peter; good point made about the horizon spliting the image in two, and though I didn't notice it, I think it is a problem. Best thing to do in these situations is use the rule of thirds as a guide; 1/3 sky, 2//3 landscape or 2/3 sky, 1/3 landscape, depending on which you wish to emphasize.
In this case there isn't anything in the sky, so 2/3 landscape would be called for. Crop the sky, add canvas to the botton, and your good to go. Thanks everyone. regards~Bill
Great critiquing by the entire gang. At first glance you see a really beautiful image but if you really scope in and look we can find a few things that could use improving. It really is the small details that make or break an image and it's always good to have someone else looking at your images to see what you just can't!
Bill, I don't mind the half way point of the horizon as much as I might normally because you didn't get it near his head or body so it's not that bad to me. I do think the brighter green at the bottom of the frame could go, though.
Fantastic exposure on this one. You sure can bring out the creamy whites in these birds!
But this *is* a web presentation, isn't it? Or do these details not matter here?Originally Posted by WIlliam Maroldo
Yes it is a web presentation of an image that loses considerable detail and other qualities due to the necessary downsizing and compression of jpeg conversion. Although this compromise is absolutely an essential part of the learning process by allowing us to see the images, the ultimate goal is to become better avian photographers, and not to create perfect web images. Let me stress that this is my opinion, and I can not speak for others on this forum. It is just my point of view. regards~Bill
Hi Bill. I was just a bit confused as I thought that BPN was a forum where the smallest details matter. And for me processing a photograph as best I can is very important to me as most of my images are meant for the web. But of course I respect your point of view! Sorry for the confusion...
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