Birds, Butterflies and Flowers... C+C

jfrabat · Apr 18, 2012

Here are some shots from a trip to a reserve near San Jose, Costa Rica. Please comment on them, and let me know how to improve. What would you have done different? What you recommend I keep on doing?

This one I was lucky to get; the top one moved away shortly after I took this pic, but I love the "reflection" effect of the 2 butterflies...

Now I know this is not the sharpest photo, but for some reason, I just love the composition. I took this one without a tripod (I did not take one with me on this trip) and low light, so sharpness is lacking. But I love the different textures (the flower, the wood and the vase) and the angles of the lines. The horizon is also a bit out of whack, but this is as close as I could get to fixing it (I already rotated it 5*) without having to cut the flower or the vase...

brianroe · Apr 19, 2012

#1, I really like your duck. It has that great duck expression

#2, Overall I like the Toucan. The DOF isn't quite big enough, it would have been nice to have more down the chest in focus. and the background is black and then abruptly white... But these are hard to get good photos of so you did a great job!
#3, I like this one a lot. The bottom one is slightly OOF.
#4, I would have liked to see a little more stem, less above and less to the left. If you can crop this differently than it would be a nice shot.
#5, The first thing that popped out at me on this one was "What if he did this?"

I started by just doing the rose, but there wasn't anything to balance out the photo so I added the leaves.

By the way, where is Costa Rica are you? I spend 4 months a year in Chiriqui Panama. Just over the border. We have a sailboat and have been in Panama 10 years. Before that we were in Costa Rica for a year and before than Mexico for 12 years....

jfrabat · Apr 19, 2012

brianroe said:
#1, I really like your duck. It has that great duck expression
#2, Overall I like the Toucan. The DOF isn't quite big enough, it would have been nice to have more down the chest in focus. and the background is black and then abruptly white... But these are hard to get good photos of so you did a great job!
#3, I like this one a lot. The bottom one is slightly OOF.
#4, I would have liked to see a little more stem, less above and less to the left. If you can crop this differently than it would be a nice shot.
#5, The first thing that popped out at me on this one was "What if he did this?"
View attachment 6643

I started by just doing the rose, but there wasn't anything to balance out the photo so I added the leaves.

By the way, where is Costa Rica are you? I spend 4 months a year in Chiriqui Panama. Just over the border. We have a sailboat and have been in Panama 10 years. Before that we were in Costa Rica for a year and before than Mexico for 12 years....

I
kind of like your edit, to be honest... It makes it a bit more dramatic. I thought about doing it, but I did just the rose, and the image felt unbalanced, but with the leaves, it works a lot better. By the way, #4 is cropped, so what you say can be fixed...

As for location, I am in Santa Ana, near Escazu and close to San Jose, but I am originally from Panama. I have only been here for about 2.5 years (although I was in Miami the previous 3 as well), but I drive all the time to Panama to see my family (father, mother, brother and sisters), so I know the area well. I also lived in David, Chiriqui for about a year...

Joel_W · Apr 19, 2012

Picture 1 is a nice head shot. Bird's coloring really helps make this shot.
Picture 2. DOF is way too shallow. Just kills a really nice capture, as the bird has a great head tilt.
Picture 3. Simply outstanding. Love it.
Picture 4 just doesn't do anything for me. Since the blooms are small, either get closer, or further away.
Picture 5 just missed being a winner. Cropped too close top and bottom. Give it a little more room so it doesn't look like it was forced.

jfrabat · Apr 19, 2012

So how about this for the last pic?

I like the entire rose in color better... What do you guys think? As for the cropping, it's the best I could do given the original pic was crooked... Here's the original, by the way:

brianroe · Apr 19, 2012

How about this?

Angle corrected and then floor and wall cloned in.

jfrabat · Apr 19, 2012

brianroe said:
How about this?

Angle corrected and then floor and wall cloned in.

View attachment 6698

I LIKE!!!! I am not so good at cloning, but you seem to know what you are doing!!!

Joel_W · Apr 20, 2012

I like the last edit except that you lightened up the image too much. I much prefer the exposure and tonal qualities of the original.

jfrabat · Apr 20, 2012

I kind of re-did it (just to see if I could do this sort of things myself). Let me know how well I did on the cloning side... I also went for a bit more texture on the background, so that it will look better in BW.