Critique please - how to make it stronger

I shot this today and am happy with it. The question is how in the future to make a shot like this stronger. Of course with wild animals you cannot direct them, just hope for the best. They don't respond well to you goose move it to the left...

Canon 80D Sigma 150-600 at 361mm 1/2000 f/6.3 ISO 500 Handheld

I think sharper focus would do it good. Reducing to 1024 px (from a much wider original?) will fuzz up an image. I learned this recently and now sharpen after reduction.

As for what to do when out in the field, until geese come to respect your choreography skills, framing is about all you've got. This picture is right-side-heavy. Maybe try cropping out about a fifth of the width at the left side, to put more emphasis on the birds.

Leveling is called for; the lines of light in the water are so prominent, and they're a little off.

Good light and good exposure, so you're on the right start there. 8) As for making a stronger image in the future:

1. When shooting the more common biirds, like these, gulls, duck, etc, keep an eye for behavior/environment that stands out from the norm
2. In these situations, get in tighter. Especially when you have the focal length to do it. Between the patterning on the left-most bird itself, and the reflections from the waves, this would have been an excellent candidate for getting "in its face" with that 600 and really highlighting those features.
3. Get the subject away from being so much dead center in your frame; in this instance, having all of them but your flapper in particular, down and right a bit. More toward that lower, right corner. Personally, I try to get the eyes/bills fairly close to one of the "power points". These points being the imaginary intersection of the lines if you divide the frame into 3rds, horizontally and vertically.
4. Make sure you get focus on the eye(s) and give a direct line of eye contact to your subject from the viewer's POV
5. Get your water straight; having the water surface tilted to the side like this sort of leaves the viewer tilting their head to view the shot a bit.
6. Much like photographing children or anyone significantly shorter than you, try to get as low as you can to get on "eye level" with the birds whenever possible.

A lot of your interest will come from the details in the birds, especially when you're shooting static subjects. So, catching some sort of action behavior, like feeding, bathing, etc can really help.

Most of all, keep practicing as you already know from the rest of your photography

What ruins it for me is something totally beyond your control. The one goose facing away pretty much kills any sense of interaction, repeating pattern, or imposed composition on the trio. All you can do when capturing wildlife is put yourself in position to take advantage of what they give you, and sometimes that isn't much.

You've done your part, the exposure is good, white balance, saturation, etc are fine. If the wayward goose was a bit further to the side you could crop him out for what I suspect would be a more interesting composition but you might not have many pixels left by the time you did that.

+1 on the sharper focus, but the thing for me is the massive distraction of the water/waves. It makes it difficult to pick out a specific place to look. I believe, as has been said, tighter grouping on the birds would really help.

Thank everyone for the input! I see the tilted water, I can fix that to a big degree with cropping and leveling in post on this shot. The right most bird does bother me, but couldn't do much about it except photoshopping him out.
In the future I will try to get up closer with the lens, the waters edge prohibited getting there physically.

I was trying to get the flapper onto one of the 1/3's intersects but with the 3 of them I couldn't, wanted avoid him looking out of the picture, but with the 3 again it is tough. I think it is a good shot that misses being really good.

I appreciate all the feedback!

To post here I use imgur.com, the original is plenty sharp but the downsized image is not as sharp. What sites do people use to post images on the forum that maintain sharpness as I have seen tons of really sharp results

Just did a quick crop on it to see how it might work when I go in the field again. it is softer due to the cropping, but wonder if the flapping goose looking a bit towards us keeps him from looking out of the frame? it would be better if he was looking into the frame

For me anyway, balancing an image means placing a subject to one side or the other when their gaze is fixed in the opposite direction.

Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18924018
. . . wonder if the flapping goose looking a bit towards us keeps him from looking out of the frame? it would be better if he was looking into the frame

That goose's pose is fine. The problem is the goose on the right, back turned, facing completely away.

goalerjones wrote in post #18924054
For me anyway, balancing an image means placing a subject to one side or the other when their gaze is fixed in the opposite direction.

Agree, mostly. Sometimes having a subject look toward the edge can achieve a dramatic effect, like illustrating a chaotic group scene or showing that people are isolated from one another.

With wild animals that are moving around, watching for a long time and taking a lot of shots increases the chance of getting one with a pleasing composition. This also applies to humans in street candids.

Hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of removing the goose on the right and then relocating part of the right side of the image to the left to help with the balance.
I copied your image so you could easily compare the 2 images. I didn't spend much time on it, since I just wanted to let you see what it would look like.
If you want me to remove my edit, please let me know.

bob_r wrote in post #18924092
Hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of removing the goose on the right and then relocating part of the right side of the image to the left to help with the balance.
I copied your image so you could easily compare the 2 images. I didn't spend much time on it, since I just wanted to let you see what it would look like.
If you want me to remove my edit, please let me know.

Hosted photo: posted by bob_r in
./showthread.php?p=189​24092&i=i49354263
forum: Critique Corner

Hosted photo: posted by bob_r in
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forum: Critique Corner

Don't remove the edit as I think it shows a good contrast and how the entire picture is changed. Will continue to practice and take lots of shots

That really makes the image, I may do it with my original, of course then it can never be entered in a competition unless they allow that, but my photography is personal for self and friends and my flickr page.

I will see what I can do with photoshop and lightroom

Here is my rendition of it

Jeff USN Photog 72-76 wrote in post #18924186
Here is my rendition of it

Hosted photo: posted by Jeff USN Photog 72-76 in
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forum: Critique Corner

Much improved; for sure. Of course, once you reach this point you then have to try and keep an eye out for things sprouting from your subjects' head/neck You're well on the right track here, though; good edit for getting the third bird out of there.