Out for a walk

[tegan]

I was drawn by the funny "proud" tilt of the heads.

Tegan

[Marko]

Too funny - I have duck shots that i was planning to upload today

I like this shot tegan but the whole image seems soft. Is it the resolution? What was your shutter speed and which lens were you using?

This is personal but I also think a bit more cropping on the right side (yes the right) gives more of a feeling that the ducks are on a mission going somewhere. I might also take 5-10% off the bottom.

Hope that helps,

Marko

[Alex Wilson]

This is personal but I also think a bit more cropping on the right side (yes the right) gives more of a feeling that the ducks are on a mission going somewhere. I might also take 5-10% off the bottom.

Seconded. Maybe even a bit more off the bottom.

[Travis]

oh... I thought this was posted in the show your photo's section...

The picture does looks soft as Marko said. There is motion blur on one of the feet thats distracting. The Proud look is somewhat lost as the colour of the birds too closely matches the colour of the background. The cropping is generally ineffective and you seemed to have picked up a habit of using unmanicured crab grass as partial background. This is distracting. Try using either manicured grass or long natural grass for your back drops.

Good try though... Keep practising...

Here a link to improve your composition

http://photoinf.com/General/Cub_Kahn/Beginner's_Guide_To_Nature_Photography.html

[tegan]

Thanks Marko and Alex. It does look better with some cropping.

Tegan

[tegan]

oh... I thought this was posted in the show your photo's section...

The Proud look is somewhat lost as the colour of the birds too closely matches the colour of the background. The cropping is generally ineffective and you seemed to have picked up a habit of using unmanicured crab grass as partial background. This is distracting. Try using either manicured grass or long natural grass for your back drops.

On top of the weedwhacker in my camera case that you suggested I will add some semtex to get rid of the background stone and a lithium powered lawnmower for the long grass.

Tegan

[Travis]

On top of the weedwhacker in my camera case that you suggested I will add some semtex to get rid of the background stone and a lithium powered lawnmower for the long grass.

Tegan

lol.... now you will have all the gear necessary for good nature wildlife composition...

ps- good sport on my critique..... as you may have been able to tell... it was 15% satirical....

[AcadieLibre]

The photo is too soft, seems almost underexposed as well. The heads and upper body almost blend into the stone. The colours appear too muted and blend together making it look almost washed out, nothing really stands out. Lack of sharpness seems to be the biggest issue I find. Not sure what can be done in PS but needs a lot of post processing work for it to be salvageable. The cropping is needed but low on the list from what I see. I Like the idea.

[tegan]

The photo is too soft, seems almost underexposed as well. The heads and upper body almost blend into the stone. The colours appear too muted and blend together making it look almost washed out, nothing really stands out. Lack of sharpness seems to be the biggest issue I find. Not sure what can be done in PS but needs a lot of post processing work for it to be salvageable. The cropping is needed but low on the list from what I see. I Like the idea.

Cropping does tend to reduce resolution and I did not have my best camera/lens combination when I grabbed a couple of quick shots. Shutterspeed was 1/250 sec. "Almost underexposed" and "almost washed out" seem rather contradictory, but a brighter background would be more of a distraction and brighter geese would have washed out the white feathers. As to muted colours, well beige is beige. I don't think that changing the colour of goose feathers in post to make the colours more vibrant would be very natural and trying to pose geese against a contrasty background is not quite possible either. What stands out rather obviously is the geese and the humour in their positions and movement.

So, I certainly agree that softness is the main issue. Background is not ideal but it is free of a lot of possible visual distractions such as the legs of tourists, etc. A long, fast lens wide open to reduce depth of field might have helped but the time is not always available to quickly change cameras or lenses and still capture the moment.

Thanks for the comments. You did see some of the problems but as you know in your own work, not all of them are easily correctable and in some cases it is even a matter of luck which is often a mixture of good and bad.


Tegan

[AcadieLibre]

Oh I know, Ducks are great it was too bad they just were not standing that highlighted them instead of blending them in. And when you have a background that matches what your trying to shoot it makes for a very difficult shot.