Pentax K-x
170mm
f/8, 1/250sec, +0.7EV
1250 ISO
Taken from my home office window through double pane glass.
BTW, this is my very first post here at BPN.
Female Northern Cardinal
Pentax K-x
170mm
f/8, 1/250sec, +0.7EV
1250 ISO
Taken from my home office window through double pane glass.
BTW, this is my very first post here at BPN.
Hi Albert- Welcome to BPN! This is a really nice first post. The image layout is simple, the pose and head angle of the cardinal are great, and the background is pretty good. The image is sharp, which is not often the case when shooting through glass. You must have good windows and were perpendicular to the glass.
There are a couple of things I would suggest to improve the image. I'm not sure if you cropped in post-processing (good to mention this and by how much), but I would give the subject more room at the top and maybe a tiny bit at the bottom. On my monitor (which is an uncalibrated one right now) the image has a slight blue cast (notice the bark at the upper part of the perch), which you can correct fairly easily. I see some noise in the BG which you could remove selectively.
We encourage participants and members to comment on other images, which is a great learning experience.
Very well done, especially shooting through double pane window.
My opinion, bird placement should be so more room at the bottom and less room at the top. Also, this has excessive room in front of the bird. Slight blue cast on my monitor also. The dark OOF limb across the upper left is a distraction, for me. I would have cloned it out.
Thanks, John. I've been very successful shooting thorough this window.Originally Posted by John Chardine
The image was cropped from 6:4 (three:two, Kept getting emoticons) to 4:3. There was nothing cropped form the top and a little from the bottom. I took a little from the bottom to compensate for being a little short at the top. I usually shoot to get the eye or center of the head at the 1/3 line, but sometimes with these birds, you get only one or two shots and they're off. I suppose that the WB could be warmed a bit, but it doesn't look too bad on my calibrated monitor.
I really wasn't sure to what extent I should post the "actual" shot or to go bonkers with PP. I worked from the camera DNG and I didn't apply any NR.
Al
Last edited by Albert Reid; 03-02-2011 at 04:52 PM.
Thank you, John. Your thought on the cropping is a little at odds with John above, but there is a lot of subjectivity involved in a critique. I see that I could warm up the WB a tad. The datk limb is actually an exposed root from a tree in the BG and I could easily clone it out.
I don't agree John, and there is some logic to the "norm" of more room at the top than the bottom, so not all subjective. In general a good placement in the frame gives the subject room in the actual or implied direction of movement. As birds fly in air and are unlikely to burrow through solid ground, in general the implied direction of movement, is up not down (of course there are exceptions with flying birds). This is the logic behind the very standard practice of giving more room at the top than the bottom. From an aesthetic standpoint, inadequate room at the top often gives the impression that the subject is in a small box or a room with a low ceiling. By the same token, too little room in the direction the bird is looking often gives the impression that the subject has misbehaved and has been sent to the corner. In this case I think the bird has just the right amount of room in front, although if you add some to the top and a little to the bottom, less to the left would work.
Last edited by John Chardine; 03-02-2011 at 10:15 PM.
Comments incorporated
I've attempted to incorporate the comments received so far. I found that there was just a tad more room above the head so I adjusted the crop. Adjusted the WB, applied some NR and removed the branch/root in the upper left.
It's beginning to look better, I think. Any more comments?
Hey Al, welcome to BPN! It's great to see you posting here!
Your repost definitely looks better but it still feels like there's too much empty space on the left. If you have enough pixels, you might consider taking this to a vertical crop....maybe something like this. I also gave it a slight contrast boost.
Last edited by Ken Childs; 03-02-2011 at 11:22 PM.
Ken, thanks for the welcome and the long past invite.Hey Al, welcome to BPN! It's great to see you posting here!
Your repost definitely looks better but it still feels like there's too much empty space on the left. If you have enough pixels, you might consider taking this to a vertical crop....maybe something like this. I also gave it a slight contrast boost.
I don't know, Ken. I like your crop, but, for me, I feel that the extra negative space works here, especially with the head being in full profile. Of course, I'm no expert and I'm here to learn. As far as the contrast boost, I cant see it. It must have been subtle.
I have another to post where I did go for a portrait orientation with the crop.
Thanks for the comments.
No worries! Cropping is somewhat subjective and the bottom line is it's your image and your vision.
IMHO, the pose and the diagonal perch lends to a vertical presentation. Also, I wanted to remove the extra branch in the upper right corner because it was distracting my eye from the main subject.
I like the vertical crop but it just seems tight to me. It would be easy to loosen it up a bit.
Perhaps there's a happy medium, between my horizontal and Ken's vertical crop.
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