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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Crested Pigeon

Photographed by

Linda Unwin on Sat 21st Oct, 2017 and uploaded on Sun 4th Nov, 2018 .

Resolution

1400x1050

Viewed

677

32479

Comment

Crested Pigeon, I would appreciate any feedback regarding this photo, It was taken late afternoon at Wattle Dam, Binya State Forest, NSW. I would have liked more feather detail, I like the way the water ripples are reflected on the side of the bird. Basic processing in Lightroom CC. Thanks in advance.

Equipment

Canon 7D Mark ll
EF 500mm f/4L IS ll USM
EF Extender 1.4x lll
Benro tripod
WH-200 Wimbeley Gimbal ll - ISO 400 700mm f/5.6 1/1600sec basic processing in Adobe Lightroom CC

Location

Wattle Dam, Binya State Forest, New South Wales

Keywords

adult

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Ian Wilson	2018-11-05 15:00:43	Hello Linda and welcome to BLP. Nice to see you posting on the Critique Gallery; it is a good idea to submit a few images here, even if you are a very experienced bird photographer. A good critique will identify any problems but just as importantly, it will highlight the good points from which we can all learn. It is just as useful to understand why a great image ‘works’ as it is to understand the shortcomings of a poor image. What ‘works’ will depend upon the objective the photographer has in mind, for example, is it an ID shot designed to clearly show the important ID points of the bird, or is it an action shot chosen to capture interesting bird behaviour, or perhaps a head and shoulders portrait. The two main components of a critique deal with technical and aesthetic qualities. Technical faults are usually pretty obvious but their cause is not always easy to identify, especially on a downsized, finished JPEG. Aesthetic qualities are subject to personal taste and there can be a wide range of opinion. Certain principles and proportions have evolved from classical painting to photography and many reviewers use these ideas to construct a critique. It does not mean they are infallible but they are a good guide to what appeals to most viewers and they can change over time as tastes and fashions change. For example, head and shoulder portraits seem out of favour these days and small in the frame is popular. From an aesthetic point of view I find your Crested Pigeon looks very good. The bird is not too big, is nicely placed in the frame and the ripples create a sense of movement without spoiling the bird’s reflection. The play of light and shade in the background has helped to isolate the bird and focus the viewer’s attention. All good points; I like this composition. From a technical point of view, your lighting and colour adjustments look spot on and there is no digital noise problem. You mention the feather detail; this depends on a number of factors including the lens quality, distance to the bird, the fineness of the detail, angle of illumination, and how you managed noise and sharpening in post-processing. In regard to the latter, I assume you applied some output sharpening after downsizing; this is essential because the downsize operation introduces a mild blur which needs to be fixed. In this case, everything looks pretty good to me, your concern is probably just a question of the fineness of the feather detail. This species has fine, soft plumage around the head, neck and shoulders which is probably too fine to see after downsizing for the BLP gallery. Were you able to see much detail in these areas on the hi-res version before downsizing? Overall this is a very good image and a pleasure to critique. I look forward to seeing more of your work. Cheers, Ian
Linda Unwin	2018-11-05 17:29:11	--Hello Ian, thank you so much for your welcome and detailed critique it is greatly appreciated. There was some feather detail in the original image, still not as much as I would like. I have turned the sharpening on in the export box and made the longest side 1400 px, Glenn was kind enough to let me know about these two. I am sorry but I don't understand the sizing I just cropped them to 4x3 and in the export box I have 1400px as the longest side and that's all I know. I'm afraid I haven't done any tutorials I just do the basics, I will have to do some research. Thanks again
Ian Wilson	2018-11-05 15:10:48	Hi Linda, Something I forgot to mention above is the image proportions. I notice that your first two posts to BLP have the image 1400 x 1050 px. I am concerned that you may think it is necessary to post all images this size. It is not of course, just so long as the width is 1400 px or the height is 1050 px, all will be OK. In fact, you should crop to suit the pose of the bird and the effect you are aiming to achieve so in general the proportions will not have any standard ratio. Cheers, Ian
Simon Pelling	2018-11-05 22:25:37	Linda I have used the following settings in the Export panel of Lightroom 6, to create a file for submission to the BLP site: File Settings field: Image Format: JPEG Colour Space: sRGB Tick box for Limit File Size, and set limit at 1024 k Image Sizing field; Tick 'Resize to Fit' box Use the following Width and Height settings: Width 1400, Height 1050 Pixels Tick box for 'Dont Enlarge' Set Resolution at 300 Pixels per Inch (I think this is default) Output Sharpening field: Tick 'Sharpen For' box, select 'Screen' and select 'High' for the amount Note that with these settings Lightroom will automatically resize the image in the same proportion as the original ie it won't fit it exactly to 1400x1050 pixels. For example, a square crop will be reduced to 1050 by 1050. Check the final exported image for sharpening halos - ie bright areas on edges particularly around the edge of the beak and legs when against neutral backgrounds. The existence of a halo suggests the sharpening is too high. If so, select 'standard' instead of High in the Output Sharpening field. Simon
Linda Unwin	2018-11-05 22:43:05	--Hello Simon, Thanks very much for that info, I have checked and changed the setting that weren't as per your suggestion. Appreciate your help. Linda
Glenn Pure	2018-11-06 09:07:50	Linda, coming in late with comments. Technically, this shot looks very good to me and little you could improve upon. In particular, the tonal range on the bird looks very good as does the detail. As for composition and image content, these are very subjective things as Ian Wilson notes. For me, the photo isn't as strong in that area. The 'spotlight' effect on the bird is very nice but appears not to have lit up the head as much. The setting also isn't that visually appealing to me. I am being picky here and know that we have to work with the situation we find ourselves in - I know too well from experience. I offer my comments not as criticisms but purely as things you might want to think about in the future when you see opportunities, take up a position to photograph from, are framing shots or selecting from a series of frames. But in the end, what you are personally happiest with is what should matter first and foremost. One small point regarding Simon's settings: "Set Resolution at 300 Pixels per Inch (I think this is default)". Note that this setting is irrelevant for screen display. It is only relevant when an image is printed on a printer. So it doesn't matter what it is set to.
Linda Unwin	2018-11-06 10:52:32	--Thanks Glenn, I have since done some selective exposure on the head as well as the crest, it does look considerably better, it's a shame the top of the crest is lost in the dark bg, things I had overlooked. I know the setting is messy but there weren't a lot of options, it's a smallish dam in the middle of a state forest and I positioned myself between the trunks of a couple of trees. All the birds that came to the dam were very flighty. I am here to learn and appreciate all thoughts, opinions, constructive criticism and personal preferences, it makes me think about a lot more than I was taking into account. Hopefully I will learn more about processing as well as capturing the best image in any given situation. Ok, good to know about the resolution, it was on 72. Thanks again

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	83/283 in Critique Gallery
	2/191 by Linda Unwin
	37/123 of Crested Pigeon
	372/930 of Pigeons and Doves
	14050/34435 Overall
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