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My first post on this forum. Here are two photos of the same subjects. They were shot a year ago on a Prairie Chicken lek in NE Colorado. Both have what I would consider to be some flaws, but I am considering entering one of them in a regional contest next week. This action was moving fast and furious, and I had a fixed focal length lens, so I wasn't able to zoom out. Please offer your C&C for these two. Which, if any, do you like better? And my second question is which do you think would do better in a popular vote contest.

Prairie Chicken Fight-1.jpg
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Prairie Chicken Fight-2.jpg
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Non-clipped wings will always be better than clipped wings. The first one is awesome! The blurred wings with the head sharp are very hard to get. Have you done some cloning in the first photo? There are some obvious patterns and random blurred areas in the bottom right area.
 
Thanks! That’s what I suspected. I did some cloning but I was mostly worried about the lower left. The blurring of the foreground looked off. I’ve fixed that since I posted this one.
-Mike from Portland
 
WELCOME! So glad you have joined us! Wonderful images! #1 is for me the strongest. With heads and eyes pretty well in focus. Are you restricted to a square crop? Were other compositional crops considered?
 
Thanks. No I'm not constrained as to crop factor. I was trying to achieve the largest size image allowable. The constraints are: 1-the photo must be mounted, and 2-total size cannot exceed 16X20". So I cropped these to a 4:3 aspect ratio to print at 12X16". Gives me a 2" border for the matte. I have occasionally been acused of over thinking. ;)

I should add that I use Olympus micro 4/3 gear, so the original was shot with a 4:3 aspect ratio. And this shot is using the full image. I don't have any room to go wider or taller without some Photoshop magic.
 
Welcome to BCG, especially since you're an Olympus shooter (as I am). I really like the first image since the birds are totally within the photo and the heads are sharp while the rest of the bird(s) is blurred with the motion of the fight.

As for how either would do in a contest, I can't help you since I've never entered a contest -- the judging is entirely subjective and who knows what the judges might like, or not.
 
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I'll be going with the full-wing version for this upcoming contest. It's true that contests, especially popular vote contests, are something of a crap shoot. But I always learn something about what works with viewers. So I don't take it personally when I lose, which I do regularly. ;)

As for the other shot, here is a bit of an off-the-wall question. As long as the wing is clipped, how about a tighter crop. Sort of an in your face in the middle of the battle type of shot. I tried this version, then ran it through Gigapixel to upscale it. Maybe it doesn't work at all?
Prairie Chicken Fight Tight Crop.jpg
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Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I'll be going with the full-wing version for this upcoming contest. It's true that contests, especially popular vote contests, are something of a crap shoot. But I always learn something about what works with viewers. So I don't take it personally when I lose, which I do regularly. ;)

As for the other shot, here is a bit of an off-the-wall question. As long as the wing is clipped, how about a tighter crop. Sort of an in your face in the middle of the battle type of shot. I tried this version, then ran it through Gigapixel to upscale it. Maybe it doesn't work at all?
View attachment 57891
It would be nice, but the closeup crop shows the motion blur on the upper birds face. Still the first one by a mile for me.
 
As for the other shot, here is a bit of an off-the-wall question. As long as the wing is clipped, how about a tighter crop. Sort of an in your face in the middle of the battle type of shot. I tried this version, then ran it through Gigapixel to upscale it. Maybe it doesn't work at all?
Not an off the wall idea at all. It's a good technique to salvage images with clipped wings etc. In this particular case the motion blur is working against you. A wider crop and running it through Topaz Sharpen AI to correct for motion blur would help. But realistically will likely only ever be usable for small format viewing. But certainly for future reference "artistic cropping" a good way to use shots like this.
 
I definitely prefer the first one. Also, the extreme close up doesn't work for me in this case. I like the sense of motion of the wings and definitely is an action shot. One thought would be to experiment with tilting the crop at a strong angle and maybe blur out the foreground even more to further unsettle the viewer into the sense of falling.
 
As for the other shot, here is a bit of an off-the-wall question. As long as the wing is clipped, how about a tighter crop. Sort of an in your face in the middle of the battle type of shot. I tried this version, then ran it through Gigapixel to upscale it. Maybe it doesn't work at all?
I prefer the wider shot and might even prefer a version showing a bit more of the lek and surrounding habitat.

As others have pointed out the close up also shows quite a bit of motion blur around the eye and beak of the upper bird. It's hard to go from nice portraits to action shots like these but if you expect action I'd bump the shutter speed up quite a bit above 1/1000" even at the cost of higher ISO. It's a lot easier to tame high ISO related noise during processing than motion blur.

That said, really nice action shots of interesting subjects. Welcome to the forums!
 
Nice images - and welcome!

I love the subject matter, and the colors attract the eye. It's an unusual subject and you are capturing action - something important in any kind of competition.

You have two subjects interacting. That makes it harder because both subjects need to be successful. You have what you captured, but in the future, I'd think about these ideas:
  • Use a higher aperture so DOF captures both birds. For this shot, at least f/8.
  • Raise the shutter speed. Blur in the wing tips is fine, but the eye and head need to be sharp. I'd look for 1/3200 sec for this subject matter. It's very fast action.
  • The eye is the focal point - any eyes shown need to be open and sharp. If the eye is not sharp, you can clone in a replacement but it may not work in some competitions.
  • I want the nearer bird facing slightly toward the camera - I don't want both birds even slightly facing away. If one is facing away, it's probably not your primary subject.
  • It's high risk but high reward to try a slower shutter speed and increased blur. It can capture the action and movement of the subjects but the eye needs to be sharp. Eyes are always important to connect with the subject.
  • Flash can be helpful to freeze fast action.
 
My first post on this forum. Here are two photos of the same subjects. They were shot a year ago on a Prairie Chicken lek in NE Colorado. Both have what I would consider to be some flaws, but I am considering entering one of them in a regional contest next week. This action was moving fast and furious, and I had a fixed focal length lens, so I wasn't able to zoom out. Please offer your C&C for these two. Which, if any, do you like better? And my second question is which do you think would do better in a popular vote contest.

View attachment 57654

View attachment 57655
Welcome!
 
Welcome ... I also prefe the first shot. @EricBowles pretty well summed up my suggestions for future photo ops of this nature.

I have never had the opportunity to see a Prairie-chicken in person. Our upland grouse in Idaho and surrounding states are Greater Sage-grouse and Sharp-tailed Grouse.
 
Welcome! I'm sort of new here myself. I like how the one is pulling on the others feathers in #2, and I would've chosen it had all of the one wing been in the shot, so I choose instead, #1. I do like the blur a lot; it shows motion and action.
 
My first post on this forum. Here are two photos of the same subjects. They were shot a year ago on a Prairie Chicken lek in NE Colorado. Both have what I would consider to be some flaws, but I am considering entering one of them in a regional contest next week. This action was moving fast and furious, and I had a fixed focal length lens, so I wasn't able to zoom out. Please offer your C&C for these two. Which, if any, do you like better? And my second question is which do you think would do better in a popular vote contest.

View attachment 57654

View attachment 57655
Welcome to the BCG forum, really liked the shots.
👏👏👏
 
My first post on this forum. Here are two photos of the same subjects. They were shot a year ago on a Prairie Chicken lek in NE Colorado. Both have what I would consider to be some flaws, but I am considering entering one of them in a regional contest next week. This action was moving fast and furious, and I had a fixed focal length lens, so I wasn't able to zoom out. Please offer your C&C for these two. Which, if any, do you like better? And my second question is which do you think would do better in a popular vote contest.

View attachment 57654

View attachment 57655
Welcome to BCG.
Nice shots.
 
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