Critique Gannet.....

Phil-D · 24 Jul 2016

.....looking down the lens.

My latest 'fad' seems to be eye contact. Lost count of how many shots I took before one Gannet obliged.

As shot, so no room for a crop

Thanks for looking

Gannet with eye contact by Phil D, on Flickr

wezza13 · 24 Jul 2016

Really nice, Phil, especially with the blue bg

Might be able to tone down the highlights a bit?

gramps · 24 Jul 2016

Doesn't need a crop Phil it's going where it's looking and works well with the oof graduated sea/sky

htid · 24 Jul 2016

It's a nice shot, I like it, but since you've asked for critique, I'll try and oblige. You've blown the highlights on the head and body, is there any room to bring back the highlights or are they gone? I'd brighten up the right (as we're looking at it) eye a bit. Also, it's too tight on the LHS of the frame. You said this is as shot, but you could easily clone some extra space in there since the bg is so simple. Just a tiny bit to even it out with the RHS

Kodiak Qc · 24 Jul 2016

Phil-D said:
Gannet with eye contact…

•

…should read two eyes contact!

Fantabulous take Phil!

den · 24 Jul 2016

Looking on phone at moment Phil as PC is down , but it looks good

Phil-D · 24 Jul 2016

wezza13 said:
Really nice, Phil, especially with the blue bg

Might be able to tone down the highlights a bit?

Thanks Wez

gramps said:
Doesn't need a crop Phil it's going where it's looking and works well with the oof graduated sea/sky

Thanks Roger

htid said:
It's a nice shot, I like it, but since you've asked for critique, I'll try and oblige. You've blown the highlights on the head and body, is there any room to bring back the highlights or are they gone? I'd brighten up the right (as we're looking at it) eye a bit. Also, it's too tight on the LHS of the frame. You said this is as shot, but you could easily clone some extra space in there since the bg is so simple. Just a tiny bit to even it out with the RHS

Thanks Chris, all my images I put up on TP are for critique, the forum is for critique and I appreciate it. If I wanted anything else, I'd join Facebook!

I thought the whites looked blown around the front of the body/shoulders/head but according to the histogram and the highlights warning on ACR they're not even close....

.... although I do agree, detail looks to have been lost. Raw available if anyone wants to try

There's a lot of talk about DRL, I actually upped the whites slightly to try bring them to 255, my pp'ing skills are fairly limited but I'm happy to learn and will listen to any advice, would I add a bit of the bg down the left using layers?, cheers

Kodiak Qc said:
•

…should read two eyes contact!

Fantabulous take Phil!

Thanks

den said:
Looking on phone at moment Phil as PC is down , but it looks good

Cheers Den

den · 24 Jul 2016

Just looked at this large Phil,and its a good one ,yes the highlights could possibly be brought back a touch but you have nailed the focus on those eyes and a good compostion that works for me....always good to have a shot in mind rather than just shoot away ,and it looks like on this ocassion you have your shot Phil

htid · 24 Jul 2016

Phil, here's a quick edit to add some to the LHS:

Phil Edit by Chris Cotton, on Flickr

If you have access to PS, simply extend the canvas left as much as you wish using the crop tool, then using the clone stamp tool just alt click the small space between the edge of the wing and the edge of the image with a brush size that fits between the gap. Then just paint up and down (holding shift to keep a straight line)...make sure you start painting directly to the left of the place you've sampled (alt-clicked) from though, so the bg clouds/sky matches up.

wezza13 · 24 Jul 2016

htid said:
Phil, here's a quick edit to add some to the LHS:

Phil Edit by Chris Cotton, on Flickr

If you have access to PS, simply extend the canvas left as much as you wish using the crop tool, then using the clone stamp tool just alt click the small space between the edge of the wing and the edge of the image with a brush size that fits between the gap. Then just paint up and down (holding shift to keep a straight line)...make sure you start painting directly to the left of the place you've sampled (alt-clicked) from though, so the bg clouds/sky matches up.

Thanks, Chris. I always wondered how to do that

Phil-D · 24 Jul 2016

htid said:
Phil, here's a quick edit to add some to the LHS:

If you have access to PS, simply extend the canvas left as much as you wish using the crop tool, then using the clone stamp tool just alt click the small space between the edge of the wing and the edge of the image with a brush size that fits between the gap. Then just paint up and down (holding shift to keep a straight line)...make sure you start painting directly to the left of the place you've sampled (alt-clicked) from though, so the bg clouds/sky matches up.

Thanks Chris, Like Wez, I wouldn't have know how to do that. I use E11 so presume it'll just be the same, I'll give it a go later, cheers

Edit- Did you have a look at the histogram?

htid · 24 Jul 2016

Phil-D said:
Thanks Chris, Like Wez, I wouldn't have know how to do that. I use E11 so presume it'll just be the same, I'll give it a go later, cheers

Edit- Did you have a look at the histogram?

No problem, always happy to help but not sure how it works in elements as I've never used it.

Regarding the histogram, I'm not sure if it'd look the same on a JPEG so no I didn't (plus tbh I never use the histogram as I don't really understand it!)

cjt2011 · 24 Jul 2016

What great catch caught the eyes just right

Dave Semmens · 24 Jul 2016

Like the shot - the background, wing and head position.

Not all images have white and black in them - so pushing the whites to 255 may not have helped, but seems to be the craze atm. Better to bring the image to how you remember it - its not a numbers game.

I am actually trying to avoid eye contact in my shots recently - the shutter sound regularly means whatever I am photographing is looking at me within 2 shots.

Phil-D · 24 Jul 2016

cjt2011 said:
What great catch caught the eyes just right

Thanks Carl

Dave Semmens said:
Like the shot - the background, wing and head position.

Not all images have white and black in them - so pushing the whites to 255 may not have helped, but seems to be the craze atm. Better to bring the image to how you remember it - its not a numbers game.

I am actually trying to avoid eye contact in my shots recently - the shutter sound regularly means whatever I am photographing is looking at me within 2 shots.

Thanks Dave.............. but it was you that was on about black and white points to me the other day!

And its that noisy at Bempton you would have to have a shutter that sounded like a shotgun to get their attention!

Dave Semmens · 25 Jul 2016

Phil-D said:
Thanks Carl

Thanks Dave.............. but it was you that was on about black and white points to me the other day!

And its that noisy at Bempton you would have to have a shutter that sounded like a shotgun to get their attention!

Yes - I always check them, but will only push as far as I think they need

I throw the sliders around in lightroom just to see the results. Sometimes I go for accurate and others I may add a small tweak