bgwilliams47
New member
This is my second attempt at posting this image of Dusky Moorhens (Australian) . What improvements would you suggest? Please?
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Second attempt posting, "please nit-pick"
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Great job including three subjects and keeping all of their eyes pretty sharp, that's not always easy to do.
The biggest issue that jumps out to me is the harsh lighting and the dark shadows cast by that lighting by their beaks and heads. Not much you can do about this for the given image but shooting wildlife in softer light whether near sunrise/sunset or on days with some clouds or even rainy days can go a long way to softening up harsh lighting.
Again, nice job including three subjects but the hard thing about multiple subjects is finding a shooting angle or situation where they don't overlap one another which usually doesn't help an image. Similarly it's not great that the left most Moorhen is partially out of the frame. Not that you always have to include all of a wildlife subject as some tight wildlife head or head and shoulders shots are really strong but given the scene with two of them shown in the frame and only a part of the third (plus the overlapping bodies of two of them) it's a bit cluttered scene.
From an action or subject interaction standpoint each bird is sort of doing its own thing with very little interaction between them which doesn't help. It's what often happens with multiple subjects but when you can capture that moment when they appear to interact in some way with one another it can result in emotionally powerful images or at least give a sense of community or family between the individual subjects. It can take a lot of field time and observation to capture a moment like that but it's what makes images like that special.
That said, they've got great colors and the small one with the crisp eye looking towards the viewer is great. Keep shooting, pay attention to the quality of the light and even better opportunities will present themselves. Keep the posts coming!
Dave is 100% correct - This is how we learn - we go out and try again.
bgwilliams47
New member
Thank you Dave. That's just the feedback I need to move towards becoming a thinking photographer.
BTW - I don't know why the image is duplicated above - any ideas?
After looking at the image and reading Dave's response above, I have nothing to add. I think he covered what I was going to say quite well.
It's usually related to the way the forum software is setup.
When you initially add an image either via Ctrl-P (Cmd-P on a Mac) or by copying and pasting an image into your post you're presented with a couple of buttons to include the Thumbnail or Full Size Image. If you click one of those buttons you'll end up with two copies of the image in your post. You don't really need to click either of those buttons if you've already gotten the image into the post.
If you really want to post just a thumbnail then you can highlight and delete the original image in the post and click the Insert Thumbnail button.
Not sure why the forum software is setup that way, but it's a pretty common software package used by a lot of web forums so it's just a bit of a quirk.
I would bring the brightness down a bit and I was thinking along the same lines as Dave, I would've cropped an inch or so behind the head of the hen on the left. Including all that body detracts from the picture, does nothing for it. As mentioned, golden hour light is always better light than harsh light and another good light is neutral light on a cloudy, overcast day. You don't get the bright spots or the contrasting dark shadows with a neutral light. I do see detail in the shadows here, they aren't totally black so good job with the exp. on that.
When posting just click "POST THREAD" at the bottom and it will only post one pic.
When posting just click "POST THREAD" at the bottom and it will only post one pic.
If you have LR, I would use Select Subject (which almost always does a great job), invert it and then reduce the background exposure by a little so it still looks natural and then blur the background more by reducing texture and detail. You might also want to decrease the saturation or vibrance so the green is less pronounced. Doing all that will make the birds stand out more.
David Berry
🇦🇺 Australia 🦘
BG…
To fix the problem:
- Click Edit (on screen—below; left of your post).
- Place your pointer (aka cursor) behind the unwanted photo (presumably the second).
- Press delete (aka backspace; on keyboard) to remove the unwanted photo.
- Check that the correction is acceptable by clicking Preview (on screen—above; right of your post).
- If correction is OK, press Save (on screen—below your post); if not press Cancel (next to Save).
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bgwilliams47
New member
Thank you all. I've tried the editing suggestions (with LR, my weapon of choice) and there is quite an improvement.
When shooting, I will try to consider composition more.
When shooting, I will try to consider composition more.
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
This image is a good one for learning! Your last post shows you have applied some of the tools in LR to address a photo taken on a very sunny day. In a week or so, come back to look at the photo. Sometimes getting away from the image for a few days (weeks/months? LOL!) and then coming back to it can give you a fresh look at the image.
To me, the above photo now looks too dark. Maybe somewhere in between the original post and the last one might look more natural. The take away here is that shooting in harsh light really can't be "fixed". Early morning, late afternoon and cloudy days are the best times to photograph in soft light. Also, I personally prefer the crop in the the original post. The last crop feels too tight and the birds don't have "room" in the frame. Another take away is to scan the edges of the image in camera and make sure that you are not cutting off body parts or including distractions.
Enjoy your journey with photography! We all started at the beginning of the "road" and are just at different points in our journey to being better photographers.
To me, the above photo now looks too dark. Maybe somewhere in between the original post and the last one might look more natural. The take away here is that shooting in harsh light really can't be "fixed". Early morning, late afternoon and cloudy days are the best times to photograph in soft light. Also, I personally prefer the crop in the the original post. The last crop feels too tight and the birds don't have "room" in the frame. Another take away is to scan the edges of the image in camera and make sure that you are not cutting off body parts or including distractions.
Enjoy your journey with photography! We all started at the beginning of the "road" and are just at different points in our journey to being better photographers.
I know I said to crop in on the one to the left but you also have to crop in from the right to keep the other two centered, or a little to the right of center for that type of close crop where all the focus is on the birds. My bad. I don't know if the sharpness would've held up in such a tight crop, only you would know that. Personally, I don't like cropping a lot so I try to frame everything up in camera the way I would want it to look when cropping so that way I don't have to crop so much, or not much if I do have to. You get a sharper image that way. Whatever you do, have fun, that's the main thing.