Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: wmchauncey on October 31, 2013, 02:19:47 pm
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No, it's not the Beatles...but don't know what to do with these swans which is part of a series of three images
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/379U2587-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/379U2587-copy.jpg.html)
I think that they're getting lost in the water...have made numerous detailed selections. Suggestions?
Want drama...
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Contrast their golden light with bluer water?
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I allowed myself to do a slightly exaggerated edit:
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In the past I've gone with both a light and a dark background...
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/airborne1-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/airborne1-copy.jpg.html)
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/airborne1-high-key-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/airborne1-high-key-copy.jpg.html)
Which might you prefer...or is there another direction that I might try?
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Unless you want to do something much more interpretive like chauncey has, I would suggest you crop it more tightly and work towards a wider aspect ratio. The capture is excellent, but slightly churned water like this is rarely a great background. Normally I would suggest not trying with water like this, but the light on the birds is wonderful and the splashes in their wake are really pretty. I would crop more of the bottom and top. this will make it wider and reinforce the movement from right to left. If this version is cropped at all, I would preserve as much to the left of the swans as possible. If you are into it, you could even do a content aware scaling in photoshop to stretch that left-hand area out a bit.
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as with previous poster...the main thing is getting the crop right...the crop as first posted...is working against your subjects.
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I didn't mess with the crop but did some changes to the color of the water to provide a stronger contrast. Also popped up the brighter points of light in the water near their feet.
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2814/10609271014_c2eace99ee_o.jpg)
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There is nothing wrong with the composition. It allows for a breathing room, space for birds to fly into, sense of place. Crop it too much and you get a crammed feeling. The OP is 8x10 ratio, so with different paper sizes it might withstand some cropping at top and/or bottom, but that's about it.
It is already fine as is. One may play a bit with white balance, contrast, clarity, etc. to season it to taste, though. This would be mine version:
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I like that new version Chris .The water is a bit warmer than Slobodans and more fitting with the lighting.
I would not crop the top at all but it could stand slightly more than 1/8th taken off the bottom to make the birds coming out more from the corner and room to fly into the top.
David
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Well, since everyone has an opinion, when I first looked at it I saw this. Ideally there'd be a little more space behind them, and it would be better if they were taking off and not landing, but you can't have everything!
Mike.
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All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective. ???
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All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective. ???
Dude - did you see my awesome super-duper motion blur ? Thats vision ! :P
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Aah...not exactly what I had in mind Chris. ;)
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Here ya go
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All you guys are doing is arguing over the crop aspect...I'm looking for "vision" from the Post Processing perspective. ???
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Darken the corners to make the area around the swans appear lighter?
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How 'bout this?
Increased exposure slightly and upped the highlights, then added a vignette. Finally I painted all the OOF water and reduced clarity.
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Took you all's advice and ended with this...another one from the series. What say you guys?
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/swan-take-off.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/swan-take-off.jpg.html)
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The neck could be a bit brighter and the back has a strong blue cast which should be removed.
Harald
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Harald is correct. :)
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Got it, thanks ;)
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Took you all's advice and ended with this...another one from the series. What say you guys?
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/swan-take-off.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/swan-take-off.jpg.html)
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I prefer the first image - the two swans make it a much stronger composition.
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I took two image from the series to work on...got these results,
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/three-swans-flying-copy-2.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/three-swans-flying-copy-2.jpg.html)
(http://i329.photobucket.com/albums/l383/chauncey43/two-swans-landing-copy.jpg) (http://s329.photobucket.com/user/chauncey43/media/two-swans-landing-copy.jpg.html)