blp shabash 430x45
Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo

Photographed by

Neville Horner on Tue 12th Feb, 2019 and uploaded on Sat 2nd Mar, 2019 .

Resolution

1400x994

Viewed

804

34375

Comment

does the amount of the Banksia attenuate add or detract from this image

Equipment

Canon 5D Mark IIV with Canon 100 to 400 f4.5-5.6 L

Location

Back Beach, Waychinicup NP, Western Australia

Keywords

adult

This image is not available for download.

Graham Cam	2019-03-02 12:43:35	Hi Neville, One of the down-sides of being President is being continually tied-up with business, most of which happens behind the scenes and too often consumes considerable time and effort. When I’m not living in outback NSW, I am back home in the Blue Mountains where I belong to two photography clubs. For one of those clubs I act as a club judge, a task I thoroughly enjoy for two reasons. The first is being able to help others with their photography, the second is that the process encourages me to reflect upon my own photography. When I judge/critique an image I have a standardised process: • describe 2-3 aspects of the image that I like, • identify and discuss the key technical issues/defects which reduce the quality of the image, • suggestions, which are directed more to the ‘art of photography’. The last dot point is an important element that is too readily overlooked. At the end of the process the image in question is yours and yours alone. Regardless of the suggestions received from other photographers, any changes you make to the image must be pleasing to your eye. Each of us should endeavour to find our own particular style even though others may be not like that style. In terms of comments which relate to the technical aspects of the image, these should be considered as they generally identify issues, which when addressed will improve the quality of the image. Finally, when I write a critique for this gallery, I do not read the critiques of others, in order to maintain an unbiased contribution. There are several elements that I like in this image: • the bird is interacting with its environment and displaying a specific behaviour – feeding • the orientation of the bird displays the short robust bill of the Carnaby’s, along with the white ear patch and white in the tail feathers. [This provides a good image for identification applications. The bird is likely an adult female, although we are unable to rule-out a juvenile as not all juveniles have a yellow tinge on the edge of the ear coverts.] • the image is sharp with good contrast and colour rendering. • The image is captured in a warm pleasing light and the distance between the foreground and background creates an most agreeable 3-dimensional effect. I will discuss the bokeh in the next section. For me there are no major technical issues – this is a nice image and well captured. In order to provide a thorough critique is to ensure that the full EXIF data is provided with this image. Your image does not contain any of the capture data, hence I am unable to comment on focal length, f value, ISO etc. Knowing that you have used a Canon 100-400 mm lens suggests that the image may have an f value in excess of 5.6, which accounts for the level of detail in the background. The red flowers are not overly distracting but I do find my eyes wandering to that right-hand side of the image. This is minor distraction. If you wanted to minimise the influence of this section of the image you could use a local mask to reduce contrast, clarity or saturation; reduce the brightness by ‘burning’ this area in PS or apply a vignette. There is an overall brightness in the background and I do think that ‘burning’ the background would make the image even more powerful – I’m suggesting subtle changes here. I also think that you could remove 30-40 mm from the left-hand edge as it adds little to the image. Whilst BLP does have image dimensions that need to be met for various galleries, don’t get caught in the classic 4:3 argument, an image should be cropped to best portray the image. Now to the question you asked about the amount of the banksia displayed in the image. The main issue is that the banksia flower on the left-hand side is a very distracting element, when one considers just the photographic aspects. If we are considering the biological aspects, the flower has every right to be there. Nevertheless, I have no hesitation in saying that this flower acts like a ‘headlight’ in this image. The key element is the bird feeding on a ‘spent’ flower cone and yet my eyes move back and forth between the flower and the bird. The good news is that this bright flower is not on the edge of the image where the viewer’s attention may be drawn out of the image - this would not be desirable. What are your options? Reduce the brightness of the flower using a mask solely for the flower; apply a vignette to do the same which also addresses the bright background. Crop the image to a portrait format removing the flower and a larger part of the bright background. I think a portrait format with the bird on the left-hand third of the image, the spent cone in the centre and the lower part of the banksia making up an equal area on the RHS would work. Try this and see what you think. A squarer format would also work, cropping on the left (leaving the flower in the image), cropping on the right and then applying a vertical elliptical vignette. A vignette would highlight the bird even more than at present. Try this and see what you think and don’t be too heavy handed with the vignette. I would also a little of the negative space at the top of the image regardless of the format you select. Another alternative is to use luminosity masks, which are definitely an advanced technique and take considerable learning to master; the benefits however are well worth the effort and are applicable for all photogrpahic genres. I use Tony Kuyper’s - TKActions V6 for Photoshop CC. Trust my comments are useful – Graham Cam
Neville Horner	2019-03-02 17:25:47	--Hi Graham, Many thanks, your comments are very useful. I have only been photographing birds for 4 years and any suggestions to help me fast track my learning process are gratefully appreciated. Ultimately I would like to enter some of my photos in competitions so getting feedback from judges is helpful. I am sure my style will evolve but at the moment I like to capture birds in their normal environment so you can get an appreciation of their natural habitat as well as the bird itself. I am mystified why the EXIF data did not show up. I processed in DPP and saved as an Exif-JPEG file so I expected all the data to be there. I will have to research why to make sure this doesnt happen again. FYI settings were f7.1, 1/400 second, ISO1250, one shot single point focus, Standard pic style, AWB. I used Auto ISO so I could capture at my desired speed and aperture. The photo was taken late in the day hence the high ISO but good colour. My current preference is to not to make selective changes to parts of the image so maybe an option would be to crop left and right to produce a portrait layout photo. thanks again Neville
Graham Cam	2019-03-02 12:43:38	Hi Neville, One of the down-sides of being President is being continually tied-up with business, most of which happens behind the scenes and too often consumes considerable time and effort. When I’m not living in outback NSW, I am back home in the Blue Mountains where I belong to two photography clubs. For one of those clubs I act as a club judge, a task I thoroughly enjoy for two reasons. The first is being able to help others with their photography, the second is that the process encourages me to reflect upon my own photography. When I judge/critique an image I have a standardised process: • describe 2-3 aspects of the image that I like, • identify and discuss the key technical issues/defects which reduce the quality of the image, • suggestions, which are directed more to the ‘art of photography’. The last dot point is an important element that is too readily overlooked. At the end of the process the image in question is yours and yours alone. Regardless of the suggestions received from other photographers, any changes you make to the image must be pleasing to your eye. Each of us should endeavour to find our own particular style even though others may be not like that style. In terms of comments which relate to the technical aspects of the image, these should be considered as they generally identify issues, which when addressed will improve the quality of the image. Finally, when I write a critique for this gallery, I do not read the critiques of others, in order to maintain an unbiased contribution. There are several elements that I like in this image: • the bird is interacting with its environment and displaying a specific behaviour – feeding • the orientation of the bird displays the short robust bill of the Carnaby’s, along with the white ear patch and white in the tail feathers. [This provides a good image for identification applications. The bird is likely an adult female, although we are unable to rule-out a juvenile as not all juveniles have a yellow tinge on the edge of the ear coverts.] • the image is sharp with good contrast and colour rendering. • The image is captured in a warm pleasing light and the distance between the foreground and background creates an most agreeable 3-dimensional effect. I will discuss the bokeh in the next section. For me there are no major technical issues – this is a nice image and well captured. In order to provide a thorough critique is to ensure that the full EXIF data is provided with this image. Your image does not contain any of the capture data, hence I am unable to comment on focal length, f value, ISO etc. Knowing that you have used a Canon 100-400 mm lens suggests that the image may have an f value in excess of 5.6, which accounts for the level of detail in the background. The red flowers are not overly distracting but I do find my eyes wandering to that right-hand side of the image. This is minor distraction. If you wanted to minimise the influence of this section of the image you could use a local mask to reduce contrast, clarity or saturation; reduce the brightness by ‘burning’ this area in PS or apply a vignette. There is an overall brightness in the background and I do think that ‘burning’ the background would make the image even more powerful – I’m suggesting subtle changes here. I also think that you could remove 30-40 mm from the left-hand edge as it adds little to the image. Whilst BLP does have image dimensions that need to be met for various galleries, don’t get caught in the classic 4:3 argument, an image should be cropped to best portray the image. Now to the question you asked about the amount of the banksia displayed in the image. The main issue is that the banksia flower on the left-hand side is a very distracting element, when one considers just the photographic aspects. If we are considering the biological aspects, the flower has every right to be there. Nevertheless, I have no hesitation in saying that this flower acts like a ‘headlight’ in this image. The key element is the bird feeding on a ‘spent’ flower cone and yet my eyes move back and forth between the flower and the bird. The good news is that this bright flower is not on the edge of the image where the viewer’s attention may be drawn out of the image - this would not be desirable. What are your options? Reduce the brightness of the flower using a mask solely for the flower; apply a vignette to do the same which also addresses the bright background. Crop the image to a portrait format removing the flower and a larger part of the bright background. I think a portrait format with the bird on the left-hand third of the image, the spent cone in the centre and the lower part of the banksia making up an equal area on the RHS would work. Try this and see what you think. A squarer format would also work, cropping on the left (leaving the flower in the image), cropping on the right and then applying a vertical elliptical vignette. A vignette would highlight the bird even more than at present. Try this and see what you think and don’t be too heavy handed with the vignette. I would also a little of the negative space at the top of the image regardless of the format you select. Another alternative is to use luminosity masks, which are definitely an advanced technique and take considerable learning to master; the benefits however are well worth the effort and are applicable for all photogrpahic genres. I use Tony Kuyper’s - TKActions V6 for Photoshop CC. Trust my comments are useful – Graham Cam

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	97/283 in Critique Gallery
	4/16 by Neville Horner
	43/113 of Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo
	455/1401 of Cockatoos and Corellas
	15135/34408 Overall
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