Wing clip equals bin?

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ruley74

Well-known member
Nothing worse the you get a decent shot only to clip a wing by a touch... well, maybe half cooked rice is worse, but I digress :p

So, would you bin it or do something with it?

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For me NO i definitely wouldn`t bin it as the picture is already telling the story , you can see the movement in the water from the trailing the legs as it tries to take off its beautifully composed there`s nice background blur, even the colour tones off the water from the bottom of the frame to the top of the frame are great.. Yeah sure it would`ve been nice to have all of the wings in the frame but hey its still an Awesome capture .

There`s no way in hell would I bin a shot like that I`d be delighted to capture something of that quality ...
 
I don’t autobin wing clips but it depends on what else the shot has to offer. As a matter of preference I’m more inclined to pass over an image where the bird is facing away so this one may not get a lot of attention, but the light is lovely. I find it a problem with a fixed focal length that things can sometimes develop too close and it’s not practical to move. I can’t see what you could do to it as it really needs more space. I have my “almost” pictures as revolving desktop images to remind me what I have to work on, so I’d keep it but go back and keep trying. And it’s not a bad image; it’s just that one little glitch.
 
I'm gonna buck the trend here - I toss 'em. I have WAY too many non-clipped shots that will never see the light of day (I'm always behind in processing) to worry about the clipped ones. Sure, it's painful, but sometimes a miss is just a miss. Happens to fishermen too, but they don't get stuck in-between like photographers :)

If you get one you're really desperate to save, you can sometimes do a "Photoshop transplant" if you have the wing tip in the same position in a different frame. Lots of work and not something I'd really want to spend the time with, but it's possible.

Another thought is, if you have the pixels, to crop in tighter so it looks like the crop was deliberate from the start :)
 
I'm gonna buck the trend here - I toss 'em. I have WAY too many non-clipped shots that will never see the light of day (I'm always behind in processing) to worry about the clipped ones. Sure, it's painful, but sometimes a miss is just a miss.

I never thought of it that way to be honest which makes sense really .. however I`d still keep it - its a different matter for @Steve as he`s probably getting/got thousands of images that are wall hangers anyway .....
 
So, would you bin it or do something with it?
I probably wouldn't print it but I do keep some of the near misses both compositionally and in terms of exposure, DoF or even critical focus/motion blur. These can be useful for educational purposes and I've used these when I've taught photography or post processing classes especially if I have some from the series that worked and one or more of the near misses. Those can be very helpful for illustrating a point but even then there's no sense in keeping a ton of them.

One of the posts above touched on another key point. In the beginning we're just happy to put wildlife in our viewfinders and capture any recognizable wildlife images. But over time our results improve and we get more critical about what constitutes a keeper. From that standpoint I've gone back through my images from time to time and culled out a lot of near misses that I realize I won't ever do anything with (though I do still keep a few for educational purposes). When I've gone back as far as my slide archives I'm amused by what I considered a keeper back then vs what I'd keep and share today. I suspect in another decade I might look back on some keepers from today that don't make the grade in the future :)
 
I'm not experienced enough to critique others honestly. But, I think the best option is to make an interesting crop on this rather than leave a small clip of the wingtip. imho

*every time I reply in these critique threads I feel like deleting later. take it with a grain of salt
 
Thanks all for the replies and POV's. I probably won't bin it instantly but I won't share on social media unless I put a funny story with it... This one I was probably more disappointed than most due to the colours and timing of the take-off with the water just lifting etc.

I've definitely done the crop so it looked deliberate/even before. :LOL:
 
Plenty of people wouldn't be bothered about this as their thought process is that a little bit of blur supports the fact that there is movement. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I don't but I have so many of this type of Egret image that I can keep the best ones blur or no blur.
 
One of the posts above touched on another key point. In the beginning we're just happy to put wildlife in our viewfinders and capture any recognizable wildlife images. But over time our results improve and we get more critical about what constitutes a keeper. From that standpoint I've gone back through my images from time to time and culled out a lot of near misses that I realize I won't ever do anything with (though I do still keep a few for educational purposes). When I've gone back as far as my slide archives I'm amused by what I considered a keeper back then vs what I'd keep and share today. I suspect in another decade I might look back on some keepers from today that don't make the grade in the future :)
Absolutely! I look at some shots from 10 years ago and think, "What was I thinking?"
 
Absolutely! I look at some shots from 10 years ago and think, "What was I thinking?"
I understand completely... only starting a little over 12 months ago into photography i look back to this time last year and think really! I can imagine the difference after having many years experience under the belt.
 
I'm gonna buck the trend here - I toss 'em. I have WAY too many non-clipped shots that will never see the light of day (I'm always behind in processing) to worry about the clipped ones. Sure, it's painful, but sometimes a miss is just a miss. Happens to fishermen too, but they don't get stuck in-between like photographers :)

If you get one you're really desperate to save, you can sometimes do a "Photoshop transplant" if you have the wing tip in the same position in a different frame. Lots of work and not something I'd really want to spend the time with, but it's possible.

Another thought is, if you have the pixels, to crop in tighter so it looks like the crop was deliberate from the start :)

I'm with Steve. A clipped image of a common bird is a reject unless it is spectacular in other respects. Then you can add a wing tip or crop tighter.

The bar is much higher for a great egret, great blue heron, or other common subjects. You have lots of opportunities for a nice great egret shot. If a bird is scarce, or the action is unusually good, you may have factors that partially offset a clipped wing tip. But you should not have other weaknesses in the image.

Flying away is generally a negative - especially when the head is slightly pointing away. A clipped wing is another negative. The head of this egret looks a little soft. The great light and spread of the wings don't overcome the other negatives.
 
Thanks all for the replies and POV's. I probably won't bin it instantly but I won't share on social media unless I put a funny story with it... This one I was probably more disappointed than most due to the colours and timing of the take-off with the water just lifting etc.

I've definitely done the crop so it looked deliberate/even before. :LOL:

I rate every image. I keep my 3, 4, and 5 rated images. My 3 rated images could be like this one - there is something I like about the image, it's pretty good, but it has a flaw. In reality it's probably a 2 - a discard because this bird is so common and has a flaw. Among the 4 and 5 images, I'd select 1-2 for editing. The rest are rated in my review and are similar quality. For me - all 4 or 5 images need to be wall worthy or publication worthy. But I choose which to edit among similars.

Everyone has a group of images that are pretty good - but not good enough. Sometimes I need those images for a specific article or client. The bar is much higher when you have hundreds or thousands of images of similar birds.
 
Well, if I have ANY doubt, I don't toss the shot. That's what big hard drives are for. :) Still, if I know I have plenty of better shots of this species, I wouldn't be likely to take the time to process a shot with a wing clip.
 
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