Waterfowl Catured in Motion

[DTruex]

Hello all,

Here a photograph that I cropped for a panoramic effect. Feedback and constructive criticism are very welcome.

This is a couple of black ducks having a casual stroll across the lake.



Thank you,

Doug

[jeeperman]

Hi Doug, glad to see you made it here and are jumping right in. I will hold off for now with my critique and let others give C&C.

[djg05478]

Hello all,

Here a photograph that I cropped for a panoramic effect. Feedback and constructive criticism are very welcome.

This is a couple of black ducks having a casual stroll across the lake.



Thank you,

Doug

Hi Doug

I like the crop and the long trail of rippled water behind the birds. The image would be stronger if the ducks were a bit more in focus or closer...but we all know how uncooperative ducks can be

Debbie

[DTruex]

I sharpened the ducks up a bit more.

[DTruex]

Any better? I would like more input please.

[tameigh]

I think that the birds are out of focus, and I am not sure that sharpening is going to help. It detracts from the image. I would try to shoot this image again with sharper focus and with the birds filling more of the frame. The birds are more interesting than the wake, in my opinion, which you asked for. I am not sure how you did the crop, but you should be sure that you are not re-sampling the image when you do it. If you are using photoshop, and have a resolution set in the crop tool, you are resampling the image and damaging sharpness. I found this out the hard way.

Also, it would be better if the birds were clearly separated, not overlapping, in my opinion. It would also be an improvement, in my judgement, if the birds were more aligned with each other when you push the button. In this image, their position is sort of random.

[Dave Humphries]

Any better? I would like more input please.

Hi Doug,

It is better, but as Tim says, it isn't that interesting - I expect the full size one looks more interesting on your screen, but by the time it has been reduced to 700px here, or even the 798px width at Photobucket, there's not much detail to see, even in the ripples.

You might want to compare sharpness between the reized version (as above) and (once you click the image and it opens in the lytebox), the 798px version.

I'd agree with Tim on bird separation too - and I bet a second earlier or later might have given you that shot.

HTH,

[Rayclash]

Try it in black and White, but I think the ducks were a bit far away

I normally rate my own pics from a shoot using aperture 1 to 5 ( 5 best )

I sometimes end up with one or two 5s and some 4s and 3s and lots of 0. (in aperture 9 is a duffer) so some 9s too.

If this was one of my shots I would probably have given it a 3 purely because of the ducks being rather far away.

Or I would crop it down and make it Black and White and use it as a top page banner type of pic.

I'll post something similar tonight to show you what I mean.

.......not that I'm an expert, just thought I would share what I would do.

Ray

[Rayclash]

This is a bit dark due to the processing I chose to do for this pic.

R

[DTruex]

I went back to the original image and cropped it closer to better show the ducks.



This was another shot from the same day.

[tameigh]

The first one of the two is better. I would try to reshoot with that in mind, and maybe wait for better light and wind. The light is probably more interesting in the early morning or late afternoon. The wind is probably more still in the morning.

Click the shutter lots of times, files are cheap, go through them and pick the best ones. Here is one I took. It was one of maybe fifty shots, and the only keeper.

[tb72]

for such picture I suggest you to shot as close as possible of the water level. On your picture I have the feeling that your lens was pointing down (sorry I don't know the english word). The 2 ducks are really too small. Sorry