The Dancer

BirdPhotographers.net

Help Support BirdPhotographers.net:

Kurt_Horne

Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2024
Messages
9
Location
British Columbia
What fantastic photos I've seen on this on this site. I'm afraid I don't have many/any images quite of that caliber. I did want to share this one for feedback, as one of my personal favourites taken last year at the local park. I was there in the early afternoon, a time when the birds are a little settled after gorging on the seed park goers bring and busy themselves mostly with bathing and grooming. The sun was high, but a l little behind me. I was photographing from a small over the water boardwalk into the shallows of the lake. I was aiming to capture some sort of motion and I had the idea of a bird flapping its wings to dry after a bath. I don't have a lot of patience and so easily get distracted from one bird's activity to the next, which did result in the too close nature of this photo, I was setup on a smaller duck not doing anything when the Canada Goose caught my eye so I snapped some frames before realizing I was a bit too zoomed in and cut off the top of the left wing.

In the end, I couldn't help but still be happy with the image, and never thought much about the clipped wing myself until I heard it come up in other image critiques. Actually I was personally more concerned about cutting the foot off. I call it the dancer because the foot and wing placement just seem like a ballerina mid movement.

Shot with a Nikon Z6II and the Sigma 150-600 lens. ISO 6400, which I could have dropped but the prior subject was in much more shade, SS 1/2000 and F5.6. There's no cropping of the image, but some shadow adjustment to make the light more dramatic and the colours pop a bit more (using ACDsee).

On another day, I look forward to sharing a couple other favourite images. Appreciate any comments/feedback.


Z62_3782.jpg
 
Hey Kurt, glad you posted for critique! We all started somewhere, and all strive to improve no matter our level - I wish there was a critique forum like this when I first started out! Firstly: good exposure - both the whites and the blacks look good, not always an easy task with such extremes. And sharp as posted too. You got the wings in a neat position, very cool.

In time you will learn to, or get more used to, zooming out more when anticipating action like this. Less clipped parts! You will also learn to look at your background as much as the subject itself. Here you have many distracting pieces of litter on the beach. Two ways you could have avoided this. 1) find another spot, or 2) get down way low, when possible, to throw off all that stuff out-of-focus and giving you a much more pleasing background. A third option would be to not stop down so much - f/14 was much more than you needed - but in this case opening up your aperture would not have helped with the background debris to a satisfactory level anyhow (especially the stuff closer to us).

Composition-wise, may I suggest giving your subject more space to look into? For example, pointing your lens more to 0 he left in this case would have been excellent.

Keep it up, and hope to see more!
 
Hi Kurt.

The main person you need to make happy is yourself. So whatever critique you get, as long as you are enjoying your photography that is what counts.

As for your shot, I do like the action. Seeing a bird do something other than just perched, standing or swimming is always good. Maybe try getting a little lower and at the same time thinking about the framing. Getting the bird to look into the frame rather than out of it often works better. One wing has popped slightly out of frame frustratingly. We have all done that in our desire to fill the frame more but sometimes it is better to zoom back a little to make sure. Most days I end up clipping the wings on something and often only realise when I get home. That is what makes me keep going out though, to get a better shot.
 
Hi Kurt, Dan C has covered a lot of the stuff you really need to think about, plus as Phill mentioned, getting lower would also help. Lower and shooting more open, would really help that busy backdrop and create better separation between subject & backdrop. Perhaps another option would have been to flip the kit from landscape to portrait, still giving space for the subject but it may help diminish that BKG too. Having the head looking more to camera is good rather than looking away, but appreciate the situation.

TFS
Steve
 
Hey Kurt, glad you posted for critique! We all started somewhere, and all strive to improve no matter our level - I wish there was a critique forum like this when I first started out! Firstly: good exposure - both the whites and the blacks look good, not always an easy task with such extremes. And sharp as posted too. You got the wings in a neat position, very cool.

In time you will learn to, or get more used to, zooming out more when anticipating action like this. Less clipped parts! You will also learn to look at your background as much as the subject itself. Here you have many distracting pieces of litter on the beach. Two ways you could have avoided this. 1) find another spot, or 2) get down way low, when possible, to throw off all that stuff out-of-focus and giving you a much more pleasing background. A third option would be to not stop down so much - f/14 was much more than you needed - but in this case opening up your aperture would not have helped with the background debris to a satisfactory level anyhow (especially the stuff closer to us).

Composition-wise, may I suggest giving your subject more space to look into? For example, pointing your lens more to 0 he left in this case would have been excellent.

Keep it up, and hope to see more!
Thanks Daniel, greatly benefiting from the critiques and thanks for yours. All are achievable.

On the F stop, it was at 5.6. I do try to use the lowest possible for the lens in situations like this and I couldn't go any lower with this lens. I like the idea of getting lower, just need to get setup to be laying in the dirt, wet, goose crap or whatever :)
 
Hi Kurt.

The main person you need to make happy is yourself. So whatever critique you get, as long as you are enjoying your photography that is what counts.

As for your shot, I do like the action. Seeing a bird do something other than just perched, standing or swimming is always good. Maybe try getting a little lower and at the same time thinking about the framing. Getting the bird to look into the frame rather than out of it often works better. One wing has popped slightly out of frame frustratingly. We have all done that in our desire to fill the frame more but sometimes it is better to zoom back a little to make sure. Most days I end up clipping the wings on something and often only realise when I get home. That is what makes me keep going out though, to get a better shot.
Thanks for the ideas Phill. I've plenty of "classification" photos but am now keen to get something more interesting or unique like an action or an interesting body position. I must agree, I think I was a bit zoom happy with the up to 600 and need to dial it back. I am now primarily using the 70-200 and often with a 2x. Find it's giving me the reach I need most times without over filling. It's also a much lighter and faster lens :)
 
Hi Kurt, Dan C has covered a lot of the stuff you really need to think about, plus as Phill mentioned, getting lower would also help. Lower and shooting more open, would really help that busy backdrop and create better separation between subject & backdrop. Perhaps another option would have been to flip the kit from landscape to portrait, still giving space for the subject but it may help diminish that BKG too. Having the head looking more to camera is good rather than looking away, but appreciate the situation.

TFS
Steve
Thanks Steve, that's something I don't often think of doing, flipping for a portrait shot.
 
162565-Z62-3782-Edit.jpg

Kurt, get the shot you want in the bag, then if you have time change format, sometimes in doing so may be more productive. Getting low and dirty is part & parcel of shooting, and don't worry about what you are lying in, most of it is organic and washed off. :)

BTW did you do anything on the BKG ie cloning in parts?

It's not ideal, but you see what I mean, albeit a bit tight and the missing feather tips...
 
View attachment 230640
Kurt, get the shot you want in the bag, then if you have time change format, sometimes in doing so may be more productive. Getting low and dirty is part & parcel of shooting, and don't worry about what you are lying in, most of it is organic and washed off. :)

BTW did you do anything on the BKG ie cloning in parts?

It's not ideal, but you see what I mean, albeit a bit tight and the missing feather tips...
Nope only edits were to shadows and some small adjustments to vibrance, contrast, and clarity. Maybe you're thinking the crow tucked behind the wing? Lately I have been thinking of cloning to extend the upper part and try to re-create the missing wing, but I don't think my tools are that good.
 
Hi Kurt, it just looked in parts some odd artefacts in the BKG.

Lately I have been thinking of cloning to extend the upper part and try to re-create the missing wing, but I don't think my tools are that good.

In all honesty, I would move on, save your time and get back out into the field. I don't know what you use in terms of raw processing, but ideally you should have Ps as well, it's the best bit of Software out there. The latest Ps has excellent editing tools, but the AI results (like so many) are low res, good enough I guess for Social media, albeit, you do need to conceal it and make only small area modifications.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top