Swan Picture

[garethhhhh]

On the whole, I like this picture. however, I think it's a little blown out.

What do you think?
(Any other comments, good / or bad welcome)

http://www.garethhhhh.co.uk/images/swan_006.jpg

[martcol]

On the whole, I like the shot too! For me the crop seems to make the head and neck of the bird seem too detached from the body, as though they don't quite belong. This is more distracting that it being slightly blown out.

Anyway, there it is!

Thanks for posting

Martin

[garethhhhh]

...the crop seems to make the head and neck of the bird seem too detached from the body, as though they don't quite belong...

Interesting observation, I never thought of it that way...

Thanks for the comment
:D

[clos]

Great expression from your model.

Yes a little blown out and it could have worked for you if you had made the blown out body the complete backround, you know kinda surrounding the head so you see no water IMHO.

Also, the bottom of the beak seems to flow into the body too easily.

Keep shootin!

-Clos

[garethhhhh]

...it could have worked for you if you had made the blown out body the complete backround, you know kinda surrounding the head so you see no water...

Thanks Clos, I'll try & experiment with that next time. :D

*******************************

Does anyone find the foot distracting?
I've just been studying the pic again & since I've noticed it I can't keep my eyes off of it.

[mr_clean001]

I didn't notice the foot until you mentioned it. I agree with the comment about the neck looking detached from the body, but I like the fact that there is some water in the shot. Next time I'd play with the angles of the shot and see what happens. Overall nicely done.

[msvadi]

great shot, I really like it :)

[mwinog2777]

There's a lack of any balance in the picture. The head is at the very top. Long neck. Body too white. Picture is somewhat disjointed.

[RbnDave]

It looks like you shot the shaded side of the swan's head. There is too much contrast between the swans head and its back. That would explain the blown highlights. Next time get the sun shining directly onto the swans head and be carefull how you meter the shot because the all white swan could cause an under exposer.

I do like your composition. Wish we had some swans near my home.

Dave

[garethhhhh]

Thank you all for your constructive comments! :D

This was my first attempt at shooting swans.
It looks like I still have a lot to learn about the subject so I'll give it another go next week & will keep you posted... 8)

[CyberDyneSystems]

The exposure error aside,. I thin the attempt of composition is really creative.. and quite nice.

I think the shot would have been a real winner with the slightest alterating of your cameras hieght,. by drpping just a bit lower,. the beek would have the water as background,. and if you could have been wider or low enough to get a little water in the foreground (in other words include the front of the chest) .. then your composition would have been more succesfull.

What really works for me is the overall angle.. the tilt of the head,. the way you split the frame,. letting the swan get cropped off on the right.. I like all of these aspects a lot. Your focus was definately on target.. it would have been nice to have seen a larger aperture used though,. to blur out some more of the background.

Suggestion:
If you are interested,. for this image as it stands,. try tweeking "levels" in PS to get a little more contrast,. do it using a seperatre copy later,. so that when you further blow ourt the hot points you can use the eraser of histroy brush to bring back any additional highlights that levels may blow out..

[garethhhhh]

Suggestion:
If you are interested,. for this image as it stands,. try tweeking "levels" in PS to get a little more contrast,. do it using a seperatre copy later,. so that when you further blow ourt the hot points you can use the eraser of histroy brush to bring back any additional highlights that levels may blow out..

For this image I set contrast to 100 when I opened it in CS, unfortunately it was too blown out to recover any detail in the body so I'll just have to try take the photo better next time. This shouldn't be too much of a problem as these swans live down on the river in Cambridge & are quiet tame & well fed by passers by...

I really liked this image & didn't see much wrong with it...
However, putting it up here for critique has shown me how others see it & has highlighted more problems than I even thought we there.

Thank you all for being honest, your critique has been most helpful, this has been a learning experience & has given me a lot to think about.