Loons + edit

[exemplaria]

Interested in your thoughts on A) This photo and B) My edit versus SOOC.

Stats:
Nikon D7000 with 80-400 lens at 195. F/5.3, 1/6400 ISO100

Thanks.

 

[ShooterJ]

The edit/crop is certainly an improvement from the original.. however, the sillouhettes would be more effective, I think, closer to water level... actually that would probably be true either way. You've got some really dark shadows and bright highlights in this, and if sillouhettes were your goal then cool... if not, then you underexposed your subjects in favor of the water/reflections of light..

It also seems the WB is off, again.. unless that was your aim.

I do like the profile of the one spreading it's wings though.

 

[exemplaria]

So silhouettes were my goal, but the problem was I was shooting these from a boat, and the loons tended to swim away from the boat, so we were constantly circling them (trying not to get too close), and I would go from side light to back light in a matter of seconds and couldn't adjust in time. Might have gotten a better photo if I were better with AE-L/AF-L, as it was I focused and metered off the birds so I got reasonable focus on the birds but the metering was a bit off for silhouettes. My edits were exposures adjustments on the birds, a curves change to make the water blue, and I "softened" the water a bit with the high pass filter.

 

[weepete]

Its a bit "meh" to me. I think it's mainly because the water is distracting and has too much reflection, but the birds are a bit small and I think it would might have been better with two or three birds instead of four. I do like the pose of the one bird flapping its wings and the concept of sillouetting them against the background.

Your edit seems fine, possibly a bit more space on the lhs to give them room to move into would have been a bit better.

So all in all not quite there yet but definatley a concept worth playing with IMO