Just Sitting

[ChrisH]

This swan that has decided to nest near the centre of Marlow. The nest, which is on the river bank, is in a small public park. Nesting swans are protected by law and the park has been closed to the public (although approaching a nesting swan is not to be recommended). Although I am some distance away, you will note that the swan is keeping an eye on what I am up to.

White swans in bright sunlight suffer from burnout. I have tried to maintain a happy balance, however if you go too far with trying to claim back detail you start to get a dirty grey coloured swan. I would welcome comments and suggestions.

Best viewed at largest size.



Apperture: f/5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/2000 ISO: 200

[FrankMi]

Hi Chris, at this point you've done very well. I can see detail in the whites and nothing looks overly dark. This is one of those cases where global adjustments can only do so much and if you need to go further, the best option is to use masks and layers to apply changes to just selected parts of the image.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Chris,

I'd be tempted to shorten (or remove) some of the stray twigs on the left with a clone tool, but other than that it looks good to me.

Cheers,

[Mark von Kanel]

Hi Chris,

Nise shot well done, if it were mine id be tempted to try a square crop to eliminate the out of focus flowers on the right, they tend to draw my eye from you subject as for closing the park..... talk about overkill we have a pair of swans that nest every year on the side of the lake, the council puts some plastic mesh fence around the site on metal steaks and thats it

regards

mark

[Jerry Soto]

Hi Chris,

I'd be tempted to shorten (or remove) some of the stray twigs on the left with a clone tool, but other than that it looks good to me.

Cheers,

I agree with you Dave, I would also remove the red flowers, my eyes went straight to the red color.

[Geoff F]

I think there is scope to lose a little from the top so maybe a 5 x 4 ratio crop to remove some of the right side might be worth trying.

[ChrisH]

Thanks for all your helpful comments.

Below is the image with trigs and grass to the left of the swan and the red flowers cloned out: -



I have also tried the 5 X 4 crop, although I prefer the original as I feel that this one puts the swan to much in the centre of the image.