Different Directions

[Brownbear]

Canada Goose (Actually two geese)...

An attempt at an artistic viewpoint but I'm not sure if it works, or not. Your thoughts please.

Post Processing... I kept the exposure as photographed to avoid noise, warmed up the WB, sharpened just the front bird, and de-noised the background.


f/4 SS 1/640 ISO 1600





Thank you.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, it works for me.

[terrib]

Hi Christina.

I think your PP on this is great. The exposure looks good. Light in the eye. Isolated from the background. Love the oof second bird. But I'm not feeling good about the crop on the front bird. Something about only having the neck is bothersome to me. One of my wildlife photographer instructors said we shouldn't crop " at the joints" of an animal. No idea why, but I've found that it seems to be good practice. Maybe just a bit more of the chest or body would help.

[Mike Buckley]

An attempt at an artistic viewpoint but I'm not sure if it works, or not.

It works for me, though I agree with Terri's misgivings. I also wonder why there is so much negative space on the left when neither bird is looking into it.

I wondered about the efficacy of a square crop. However, I've noticed that recently it's not possible to download your images. If you've changed something to make that happen, I have to wonder whether it's to your advantage or your disadvantage. If you haven't knowingly changed anything and want to have the benefit of people downloading your images before making suggestions, check out what might have caused the change.

[JBW]

I like the theory but the practical is a little thin. perhaps a little more of the front goose? But then there would be more of the back goose. Tough call.

[GBO25]

Wonder how it would look in a very tight square crop starting just above the white flash on the rear oof bird so that only their heads & necks are in the frame? Just a thought.

[FootLoose]

I like it, Christina. You have nailed focus on the eye, and that arrests attention.

Suggestions about alternative crops raise the question of where you would crop to get a portrait of the bird. ie how much neck to include on a long-necked bird - or animal. I think Graham's suggestion is on the track.

Or possibly crop a little from the bottom of the frame to remove the white section of the main bird's neck. As it is, I feel there is slight tendency for it to appear as a two-headed bird if viewed casually.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

Ok, I love it, I think it's fantastic and it's by far the best picture of a goose I have seen in a long long time.

It's different, it's quirky and it makes you look at it !

I managed my first half decent shot of a heron this week, it was hard, they move, they fly away and it does not appear to be straightforward to frame them how you would like so you can perhaps understand why I'm a fan of this bird picture

Grahame

[wilgk]

Well it certainly is different, which is great to see.
It has made us all stop & look & comment, so I think that is great.
Well done for thinking of this different framing approach.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Christina, I like the image and your PP work , different and interesting for me If it was my image I would try some tighter vertical crops for a better look ,because I don't think the negative space adds to this image .

PS. I also like the colors very much.

[IzzieK]

This is good Christina. I like it. The shot has already been described so I won't comment on it. What I like most is the thought that you were trying to photograph the second bird but the main bird got in its way. Makes me smile. I like the effect very much.

[Nicks Pics]

This one's great Christina! Are plain old geese boring? I don't know, but at least you mode good use of the opportunity and made an artistic composition, which you don't always have the opportunity to do with more flighty wildlife. I think the suggestions of Terri and Mike about crop and the negative space on the right are worth considering, but generally I like it very well. Good use of selective focus and BG blur.

[Brownbear]

Thank you to everyone for you comments, feedback and suggestions. Truly appreciated and very helpful for me to learn from. This image was something different for me to try and although I do like it, when shared with friends and family the response is just ho-hum... ie; the response is not the usual that's beautiful, so it's nice to know that the image is liked and the feedback will help me think about my framing in future. I can find Geese easily so no doubt I will try this again.

John... Thank you for sharing about the Nik program. Right now I'm still learning Lightroom and Photoshop, and for now these are more than enough for me but I will keep in mind for future.

Terri... I think you're right about the positioning of the neck. Alas I only took two shots like this before moving on to just photographing the individual goose. The other was with the Goose in front out of focus and the one in the back in focus, and it's even stranger. Thank you for you compliment on post processing.

Grahame... Thank you. I did capture some very nice shots of this Goose (all alone). Indeed framing their necks is a challenge, and Herons more so because of their extraordinarily long beaks.

Binnur, Kay, Brian, Izzie, Graham and Greg... Thank you for taking the time to comment and advise. Very helpful... Next time around I will keep all the framing suggestions in mind so I don't have to crop so severely.


Mike... I'm going to reply to you individually about my computer and negative space challenges.


The Suggested crops....

A... (one I tried and I think fits with Binnur's suggestion)



B. Mikes



C. Greg & Graham's



Cropping severely for this image is not the best because of the high ISO and speckles in the background, but a great exercise to know for future framing.

Thank you everyone...

[Brownbear]

Thank you for advising. Truly appreciated.

With respect to the negative space my thoughts were that the both geese were lost in thought. The front one thinking in the present, and the back one looking into the light of another world (a vast world needing lots of space including the left side), and also that it could be that the front goose was dreaming about his long lost love (the rear goose) who was in another world...

I also thought that perhaps because of the golden colours/light that the negative space added to the image... I always struggle with this negative space thing.

With respect to my computer... I haven't changed anything but about a month ago I noticed that I couldn't copy Nick's image to demonstrate a crop... And then I tested it by trying to copy one of your images. The messages I receive state... file is too large, file is corrupt, jpeg is truncated.... Yesterday I tried to download Rita's image to show a crop and after about 12 tries, managed to do so but I don't have a clue why it finally worked. And once again I can no longer copy images. Bringing in a computer techie is very expensive, and except for this copy images thing my computer is working just fine so I'm going to wait until it needs servicing to address this problem.

Thank you.

It works for me, though I agree with Terri's misgivings. I also wonder why there is so much negative space on the left when neither bird is looking into it.

I wondered about the efficacy of a square crop. However, I've noticed that recently it's not possible to download your images. If you've changed something to make that happen, I have to wonder whether it's to your advantage or your disadvantage. If you haven't knowingly changed anything and want to have the benefit of people downloading your images before making suggestions, check out what might have caused the change.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Nick... Indeed plenty of Geese around that are easy to get close to and experiment with. Truly appreciated.

This one's great Christina! Are plain old geese boring? I don't know, but at least you mode good use of the opportunity and made an artistic composition, which you don't always have the opportunity to do with more flighty wildlife. I think the suggestions of Terri and Mike about crop and the negative space on the right are worth considering, but generally I like it very well. Good use of selective focus and BG blur.

[Mike Buckley]

except for this copy images thing my computer is working just fine

I love computers when they work properly and hate them when they don't. This situation of yours is really bizarre.

[Brownbear]

Me, too. It is bizarre. Maybe it will just fix itself one day!

I love computers when they work properly and hate them when they don't. This situation of yours is really bizarre.

[Shadowman]

Hi Christina,

I mentioned NIK software because you stated you only applied NR on the water; not the bird. I wasn't aware that you could apply isolated NR with Photoshop or LR unless you used Layers. NIK allows you to apply the NR within an image and you can isolate where it is applied.

[Bobobird]

I will go with C with just a tiny bit of more space on the right.

[JBW]

Thank you for advising. Truly appreciated.

With respect to the negative space my thoughts were that the both geese were lost in thought. The front one thinking in the present, and the back one looking into the light of another world (a vast world needing lots of space including the left side), and also that it could be that the front goose was dreaming about his long lost love (the rear goose) who was in another world...

I also thought that perhaps because of the golden colours/light that the negative space added to the image... I always struggle with this negative space thing.

With respect to my computer... I haven't changed anything but about a month ago I noticed that I couldn't copy Nick's image to demonstrate a crop... And then I tested it by trying to copy one of your images. The messages I receive state... file is too large, file is corrupt, jpeg is truncated.... Yesterday I tried to download Rita's image to show a crop and after about 12 tries, managed to do so but I don't have a clue why it finally worked. And once again I can no longer copy images. Bringing in a computer techie is very expensive, and except for this copy images thing my computer is working just fine so I'm going to wait until it needs servicing to address this problem.

Thank you.

I am not a computer techie but when I have had similar problems it was because of a glitch. I rebooted from before the glitch started and things worked fine. Do a search under restore points. It might or might not work but it doesn't harm anything and can be reversed.
B