emerald stream
edge of pond
wood duck houses
geese
hen and mallard
satisfied swan
swan eating
tranquil
stumps in pond
waterfowl
rocks in stream
view from the top of waterfall
waterfall
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geese by roadside
Okay Joe this is am impressive number of pictures you posted here… So let's get into it starting from the bottom number 16… One of the goals of the course is to learn to see a focal point in each and every picture that you take. And one of the main things I want you to take away from this class is that the focal point and light should align. What does that mean? Well starting with number 16 where is the focal point? I think your intention is the two ducks in the center but where does the eye tend to rest naturally? It's in the light areas in the bottom left and upper left where the a brighter sky is reflecting in the water. One of the jobs of learning to edit is to control some of these lighter areas that don't contribute to the design of the picture. Those light areas drag your eye away from the ducks… Another thing about shooting ducks is you really need a telephoto lens for the most part unless you're right up on top of them. Being far away doesn't help either.
ReplyDeleteNumber 15 is much much better. Now is the light is more centered, and the ducks and geese are closer. I've got a better feeling about this one in terms of the unity of the whole and the way you composed this one.
Number 14 is a tough one. Photographing in nature under full sun is difficult at best. We discussed in an email how shooting RAW can be a huge help to get control over the highlights. Do you see how the white water of the moving stream is blown out? And how blotchy and white the leaves are? Once it's overexposed like that it can't be darkened… the pixels are lost forever.
When shooting across the pond like this in number 13 Its helpful to straighten the picture get the horizon line parallel to the edge of the frame so in this case we would rotated clockwise… It's easiest to do this with the crop tool as I demonstrated in the video for Deitra take a look at that.
Number 12...This is a pretty strong one it could be improved a little by doing a feathered selection in the center of the water where the clouds are and bringing just a little bit more light, and darkening the sky but whoops do you see that white cloud in the upper right part of the frame it too is blown out. Again shooting in RAW will allow us to pull back the highlights in the white areas so we can get some detail into that.
Number 11, there is a problem with camera shake on this one and blown out whites.
Same thing with the snake we've got a buzzed camera shake going on. That means that the camera is moving while the shutter is open. To fix that you need to hold the camera still, use a tripod or a faster shutter speed.
In 9 and number 8, you are in close to the swan. See how blown out the white feathers are on his back though? So we need to get control over that.
Seven is pretty nice... I like what you're thinking about here. I wouldn't change much about that at all.
So what do you think I might say about number six with the two Mallard ducks?
In number five, the Canada geese, I would darken the foreground just a little bit to lead your eye towards the focal point of the geese. It is not a bad shot overall though… I would crop in that little piece of land in the upper right.
In number 4, I would darken the roadway again it's a bit distracting by being so light.
Number 3… there's nice detail of sticks and leaves but it's harmed by the harsh sunlight and blown out whites.
Number 2 is a bit far away not your strong shot.
Number 1 has contrast issues again where the sunlight is a bit bright on the leaves but overall I like the composition and I like the way you are filling the frame.
I like to say that a 10 to 1 return on your shooting is a good return... in other words, shoot at least 10 times the number of images you wish to call final images.