pwd2004ringo Loc: Corona CA

I took a few shots of this guy on a roof top on the pier but I guess he wasn't camera shy so he flew down and land right next to me on the railing. I had to back up to get another shot. Please critique and I'm not crazy about the railing, but didn't want to crop to much.

Iowegan

Any chance there is enough to try a landscape cropping to expand the composition background?
I don't think the handrail is a a detraction, and might enhance the shot, perhaps crop the upper sky to give the landscape more width??

I don't know, you might have to zoom in too much, causing it to grain, or lose detail on the bird.

$0.02

I like the shot though. :)

largeformat Loc: Bend, Oregon

Hi: I think it is a great shot. The only thing I would do differently is straighten the horizon of the water.

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Agree---straighten the horizon and crop sky to just over the top of building. Nice shot, gracious of the bird to be so cooperative.........

thefunxtr Loc: Atlanta

This is a great shot ... love Pelicans!

Just a few suggestions ..
1. Straighten out the horizon .. if you don't have any post processing software, you can download Picasa for free .... great value for the money!

2. cropping - there is a whole bunch of empty sky that adds nothing to the shot ... I would try to crop it just above the top of the hotel. I also would crop just a little bit off the bottom to create "landscape" instead of "portrait" as previously suggested. This will also put the bird closer to the "rule fo thirds"

3. get rid of the "floating thingy" in the water close to the bird (again, Picasa will do a good job if you don't have any other software)(for free!)

thefunxtr Loc: Atlanta

Nice coco ... you beat me by 6 seconds! :lol:

coco1964 Loc: Winsted Mn

Not bad for a "hunt & pecker"............

pwd2004ringo Loc: Corona CA

Ok, I straighten the horizon and got the yellow thingy out of the water.
There was no more area to expand since it was shot Portrait.
What I'd like to know is what made this photo grainy? And is grainy the same as noise?
It was shot late after noon around 5:30. What should I have changed in my setting to get a better shot. It was also really windy and could barely hold my camera still.

Whoops. Just realized that I forgot to lighten it a little.

gmcase Loc: Galt's Gulch

I think the water line was not the best indication of what was needed to level. The building is now leaning to the right and is very obvious. The original was close as Dara's t building goes.

mooseeyes Loc: Sonora, California

Well, since someone else jumped in with a post of a suggested "fix", I thought I would see what I could come up with. First, the angle of the shot is what makes the shore line look off; however, if you were to plumb line the bird it looks pretty straight as is. That being said, I did do a very minor clockwise rotation (1.5 degrees) to give me a better crop line on the left, so those distractions could be removed. Because the left line was too close to the bird, I felt that an edge treatment that "bit" into the bird just a touch gave it an overall better feel.

I cropped down into the background building, wanting to get rid of the distracting colored roof in an attempt to make the background go away even more (reducing the aspect ratio of background to primary subject).

The floating thing in the water was removed.

Finally, the levels were off. I adjusted and lightened, after sharping edges.

The subject really is the focus now, and seems to almost pop out to the viewer. The resulting comp. really seems to make this a much stronger image.

I hope you agree. In any event, you caught a stunning shot of this "drop-in" critter! Super grab shot. . .well done.

gmcase Loc: Galt's Gulch

I like it except I think a little too much of the bird was cropped on on the left.

markar Loc: Michigan

This is a great shot!!!

Bmac Loc: Long Island, NY

I'm liking this version the best, I think you did a good job of cropping. As you said, a bit of lightening....and great shot. 8-)

thefunxtr Loc: Atlanta

Yeah ... gmcase, you are right. I was looking at the shoreline, but the building is the real indicator in this case and it was actually "straight" in the original!

English_Wolf Loc: Near Pensacola, FL

Actually if there is a need for the horizon to be straight it is small as the real horizon is way back there, the dark blue line and that is straight.

Using the building as a reference it between 6 to 10 degrees... I would not bother with it...

I also disagree with the cropping. You are taking the bird out of context and bring the building into prominence.

Mooseyes does a great job at correcting the crop but at an enormous cost to the bird.

The picture itself (Original) must be gorgeous as everything is in focus, saturated and so forth. Don't see why you would want to mess with it.