Unnatural Inclusions in Photos…..Okay or 👎: Part II

[bleirer]

The main thing about the osprey I notice is the clipped blacks in the background. Distracting to me. I don't see anything wrong with cropping, on the other hand keeping it adds to the story of what the bird is doing and where it is. That's where the bird lives, in a box.

 

[Larry S.]

Everyone, opinions on the cub have been helpful in my assessment here. The second part of my post deals with the same thing but different circumstances. We have an osprey nesting pole behind our house in the middle of the creek. There have been shooting opportunities that ”include” the nest box which I think detract from the natural habitat for this species. Not unlike songbirds at your feeders.

The image is of two females fighting over a nesting site…. But the man-made nest box is prominent under the defending osprey in the top image. The lower cropped version eliminates the wooden box and leaves the viewer to think it could be in a tree, etc.. But is it too tight or deceptive…?

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[Ralph]

Karen, the question was not about harsh lighting, blown out nest material, time of day, or distracting blacks in background. I’m asking opinions about the man-made nest box detracting from the image and should it be cropped out as shown in image #2… I started a 2nd post on this topic so as not to get confused with the bear cub…

Larry, I do what you did as much as possible. Crop out as much of the box as possible. Sometimes the osprey will cooperate by building up the height of the nest so that you can completely crop out any sign of the nest and still get a nicely centered shot.
The box is barely visible. See below. I also underexpose by at least a-0.3–0.7 stops with these guys. You can always recover the shadows in post processing.

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[Larry S.]

Larry, I do what you did as much as possible. Crop out as much of the box as possible. Sometimes the osprey will cooperate by building up the height of the nest so that you can completely crop out any sign of the nest and still get a nicely centered shot.
The box is barely visible. See below. I also underexpose by at least a-0.3–0.7 stops with these guys. You can always recover the shadows in post processing. View attachment 81522

Crocodile Dundee would say “now this is a nest!” Wow, some big structure there. With 2 fledglings? Yes, cropping out the man made box eliminates a major distraction and is more natural…. Great shot!

 

[ray rozema]

Great straight face on look
Agree with above : Crop out the box and consider removing some of the prominent dark areas in the background.
Might consider a round of denoise

 

[Ralph]

Crocodile Dundee would say “now this is a nest!” Wow, some big structure there. With 2 fledglings? Yes, cropping out the man made box eliminates a major distraction and is more natural…. Great shot!

In the location where I shoot, there are usually 6 different platforms . Some nest are really large but others are not. For some reason, many of the nest have been cleared off recently. I think the park service was fixing some of the nesting boxes. I’m hoping that the ospreys will rebuild them in April. Last year when that happened two the platforms did not have any chicks.

 

[Larry S.]

In the location where I shoot, there are usually 6 different platforms . Some nest are really large but others are not. For some reason, many of the nest have been cleared off recently. I think the park service was fixing some of the nesting boxes. I’m hoping that the ospreys will rebuild them in April. Last year when that happened two the platforms did not have any chicks.

Ours didn’t have any chicks either Ralph. There’s a big controversy going on here in the Chesapeake regarding over-fishing of menhaden, the keystone forage species for our ospreys, striped bass, etc.. The birds are starving and move on, maybe (hopefully) up to your area. I’ve wondered about the sticks disappearing also. Happens here and makes me wonder if another species is stealing nesting material… like eagles of which we have plenty. On a unrelated note; I recently bought the “F” mount 70-300mm P lens to fill a gap for both the D850 & Z’s. Noticed you have one… bet you like it. There’s a review out there by some guy in Europe on that lens with a “Z” camera….

 

[Larry S.]

Great straight face on look
Agree with above : Crop out the box and consider removing some of the prominent dark areas in the background.
Might consider a round of denoise

Good suggestions…. Most of that prominent black area is actually loblolly pine limbs and needles in the foreground I had to shoot under. This is a JPEG L/fine*. I have LrC installed but struggling up the learning curve. Not the editing but setting up the computer files in my iMac.

 

[Ralph]

Ours didn’t have any chicks either Ralph. There’s a big controversy going on here in the Chesapeake regarding over-fishing of menhaden, the keystone forage species for our ospreys, striped bass, etc.. The birds are starving and move on, maybe (hopefully) up to your area. I’ve wondered about the sticks disappearing also. Happens here and makes me wonder if another species is stealing nesting material… like eagles of which we have plenty. On an unrelated note; I recently bought the “F” mount 70-300mm P lens to fill a gap for both the D850 & Z’s. Noticed you have one… bet you like it. There’s a review out there by some guy in Europe on that lens with a “Z” camera….

Interesting hypothesis about the nesting material . Thats a possibility. As far as the70-300 p lens goes, yes I like it a lot. It was the first lens I purchased when I bought the D500. And I used it all the time until I purchased the 500 PF. But since then, I’ve only used the 500. The only negative about this 70-300 is that it is not compatible with a TC, if you want to use one with it. I think that once I get the z8, the zoom will be on my D500 and 500 PF will be on the z8 until I figure out what Z-lens I want to purchased.