Looking For Critique

[TheNevadanStig]

So, I feel like I have been learning a lot in the couple of months I've been here. I've gone from shots not worthy of anything to getting fairly good. But I always like to get better. For a while I've just been getting mostly "great shot" comments which are great, it is nice to go from complete crap to good shots. But I always want to get better. So I'm going to post a few shots on this thread that I like, which may have already been posted, some not. BUT I want you aces out there to be super-critical. Tell me EVERYTHING I could have done to make it better, from the camera in my hand to PP.

#1
248 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

#2
Double Crested Cormorant With Trout by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

#3
1652 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

#4
170 by TheNevadanStig, on Flickr

 

[Desi]

#2 is great. No critique to give, just appreciation.

 

[robbins.photo]

Ok well keep in mind please I'm only getting nit picky by request.. lol

Shot 1 I'd try cloning out the stick/ log in the center of the frame. It seems a little distracting.

Shot two I'd probably move the bird just a touch to the right, just a personal preference there really but just a bit more open water to the left I think would work better.

Shot 3 is great, might try moving it up just a touch so the space above the birds head is roughly equal to the space below the reflection and see how that works.

Shot 4 I love, wouldn't change a thing.

Sent from my LG-LG730 using Tapatalk

 

[Raj_55555]

To add to what robbins said,I think it'd have been a better shot had the reflections were completely in the frame. Here it just ended abruptly. The same goes for #3 where I'd compose the image from a little more right so that the water ripples are completely in frame.

I'll critique #2 when I'm sleeping, I take shots like those only in my dreams. :hail:

 

[limr7 5]

As with robbins, I'm only getting nitpicky because because you asked!

#1: crop just a tiny bit more from the top and left of the frame. Right now the bird is not centered but close enough that it doesn't seem definitively off-center. Make it less ambiguous. I have no problem with the stick. The pose, the position next to the stick, the look on his little face...these all say, "THIS ARE MY STICK!"

#2: I got nothing. It's awesome.

#3: I can't even believe I'm saying this, but the head seems a bit soft while the legs and parts of the body seem sharper. I am surprised that I say this mostly because whenever someone says "It's a bit soft" about a picture, I often look at it and think, "Geez, how sharp does it have to be, people???" But this time, I look at it and wonder why that head isn't making more of an impact. It seems like it should, but it's not. The focus probably hit just a shade in front of the head.

#4: Is it a shade tilted? I don't mean the bird - he's hunched over. I'm looking at the waterlines and rocks in the background at the top of the frame.

 

[TheNevadanStig]

Thanks all!
And yes robbins, I'm looking for nit-picking. Tear anything apart you can.
So I guess what I'm learning so far is I get a little to caught up in the rule of thirds sometimes. Maybe I should break it if it means getting more reflections, or the ripples as stated, to give more of a sense of action. Though on #1, that pretty much is all the reflection there is, due to the choppiness of the water.

 

[Designer]

#1 as Robbins suggested maybe clone out the stick
#2 good the way it is
#3 I straightened it, cropped the top, cloned out some spots
#4 Straightened it and cropped to make the edges orthogonal