Hip Coyote

Just like the zebra photo (prior), this is a bit of a variation from the protocols of this section, but thought it might be fun. This photo I took and post processed was submitted to my photo club's monthly meeting for evaluation. We rank photos from 3 to 9. 8 and 9 are considered high merit, display worthy photos. You can even give it a number rating you want.

You are welcome to weigh in on the photo in any way you want. After a while, I will share with you the comments (as best I can remember) of the two evaluating pros.

REPOSTING OK on this one.

A few hints: The pro had a few comments on this one. One I thought was totally goofy and one I might agree with.
Also the file is small because I am away from my photo stash at the moment.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Can you revisit this post and add a version that can be downloaded? Personally, I would suggest more editing to clean-up the background, specifically

a) Remove the horizontal branch from the background.

b) Remove some of the spectral highlights, anything that pulls the eye away from the bird. There's some large circles on the left of the frame and some of the circles in the upper top-right, some that might naturally go away when removing the horizonal branch.

c) Probably with the removal of the horizontal branch, the white-ish highlights in the lower left corner will need to be removed too as they'll unbalance the revised image.

d) Similar to item (c), the highlights in the upper left corner will also need to be removed as the various eye-catching clutter that competes with the bird are removed from the background / edges of the image.

The focus, exposure and positioning of the bird seem superb. It's more of the clean-up of the scene that are the areas for additional work to my eyes. Hopefully, your club members were thinking similar in their feedback.

Hip Coyote

Odd, I am trying to upload, save attachment and store original. For some odd ball reason the system is not taking it. I wonder if it is because the file size is so small? I will try a new post in this thread as well to see if that works. I changed the original post to allow REPOST uploads on this to facilitate people making corrections/alterations as they see fit. Stupid mistake to leave my hard drive at home with all my pics...these were downloaded from emails sent to my camera club...not the best scenario.

Hip Coyote

Not taking the original..file size an issue? It is small.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I like the image. I like how the bird is well separated from the background and is quite sharp. I also like the background. It's obvious that it's real and gives hints of the tree(s) surrounding the pretty bird.

Hip Coyote

Chg Canon had some keen observations...there are some flaws, IMO, of the shot I should have fixed. And there are some limitations with my m43 equiopment, cropping and such.

Hip

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

As an Admin to the local subsection, you should have the ability to <Edit> any post in the section, as well as delete posts. When you get home and have access to the actual image, you should be able to replace the image in the original post as well as delete the duplicative attempts.

In the old, not so far past of UHH, the thumbnails were for any image at 800px or less on the horizontal. But now, the yet to be published limit seems to be around 1200px. So, relatively large images still are thumbnails if just around the 1200px wide limit.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The editing I described depends on the highest pixel resolution, preferably a RAW for the color data, and both the tools and the expertise to use those tools. Photoshop is the best tool for seamlessly removing the horizontal branch, although you can likely make it disappear with LR classic too. Other tools also can do the job, but they all depend on having lots of pixels as source material to clone and patch-over (heal) the replacement pixels with what remains.

Hip Coyote

Will do. Stupid mistake leaving drive at home. At this point am trying to drive interest in the section...so using what I have.

Agree that PS is how I would remove the branch.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

You've already received comments about removing the "distractions" in the background and they're all in line with the perceived wisdom of not drawing attention away from the main subject. However, in this case the main subject is so strong and eye-catching that the background distractions are less of an eye-pull. In fact I find the bright bokeh quite appealing and visually novel, so much so that I'd recommend leaving it as it is. If it was much stronger I'd recommend subduing it a bit, but it's not extreme and it's visually pleasing.

Perhaps with a less strong subject the bright background wouldn't work but in this case I wouldn't describe it as "not working". In fact subduing the background would result in the sort of image we've seen a million times already (OK, that's a slight exaggeration ), but leaving it the way it is gives us a refreshing (and to my mind acceptable) alternative to the norm.

Hip Coyote

Ok folks, as stated, I do not have access to the original image....I posted this just to get some CC going. The pros who evaluated this pic loved the rendition of the bird. Good colors, etc. Unlike the time we have here on this forum, they only have a few seconds to comment then must move on. They thought the rule of thirds should have been used rather than having the critter in the middle. And the odd comment was that the bird holding on to the vertical branch looked odd, so I should have rotated the image. What you see is the way the bird was on the tree.

Going back, I do see the horizontal branch that Chg commented on and would either reduce the highlight on it or eliminate it all together. I probably would try to reduce the whitish highlights in the background as well. I am happy with the rendition of the bird. Using LR's select subject mask made it easy to work on the bird. I may go back and re-do that mask, invert it and work on the background.

This photo did not receive high merit...it received a 7. Given the need for a few corrections, I would agree...with the exception of rotate the bird to make it look more normal. I love it when the photo evaluators, looking at a shot taken of an animal or some natural phenomenon in the wild, say something like, the picture of the animal would have been so much better if...when the if is a rare occurrence. "This shot of the polar bear would have been much better if it were eating a penguin!" (A joke) In any event, the shot can stand some improvement, but rotating the bird, away from its actual position on the branch, is not one of them.

Like all critiques, the artist accepts or rejects the comments to refine their art. I'll keep the position of the bird as is and work on the rest when I get a chance.

Happy shooting

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Consider following the blog of Art Morris (https://www.birdsasart-blog.com/). He's a rather active bird / nature photographer who does a lot of clean-up and explaining why / how within his images. I like a lot of your background highlights, so it's not all (not even most) that I'm suggesting should go, rather - just the few ones that distract / compete with the bird. Regarding 1/3 or center, I think the center works for this, just with more cleaning of the several distractions around the edges of the frame so the bird in the center is the true center of attention.

starlifter Loc: Towson, MD

In my humble uncompliated thinking it looks fine.

Hip Coyote

thanks

Hip Coyote

Thanks, this is my morning coffee time to muse, I guess. I liked the shot a lot as presented as well..I'll mess with it and see if I like it any more / less.

Happy shooting