We have received out next photo for comment. This was an interesting one to get comments on, as it is obviously a good photo, but it had a number of challenges. At the club evening there was a short debate if this can be accepted as a nature entry. The judges did decide to give the author the benefit of the doubt and judged the photo in the nature category.
As before, you can view the full original image by clicking on it. Remember to add your comments as well. Here is the photo and thanks to the panel for their comments.
Panel Comments 1
Always great to capture a bird in flight and the head and eyes are sharp and we can see the movement in the wings which is also a plus. The bird is completely lost against the back ground and does not stand out at all. If a shallower depth of field had been used the background would have been more out of focus.
Panel Comments 2
The key attraction in this pic is the eyes of the owl, which is also sharply in focus - very fortunate indeed. Higher shutter speed would have helped to sharpen the moving wings, but that is not always possible in the circumstances. Pity the background is similar to owl plumage but then that is why nature invented camouflage... the background deprives the shot of needed perspective, being very uniform and flat. The pic could perhaps benefit from increased colour saturation to relieve the dullness and accentuate the eyes. This is allowed for nature category.
Panel Comments 3
This is a photo that one would normally be very proud of as it is technically good. Unfortunately the background killed the photo for me and you will require heave post processing to try and make something of this photo. Personally, I think you were lucky not to be disqualified. Photos with man made components will always be risky to enter in the nature category.
Panel Comments 4
Ek hou van die foto en die outeur het die uil baie mooi vasgevang in vlug. Die vlerke wat ‘n bietjie uit fokus is wys vir my daar is beweging. Die oë is baie mooi skerp wat belangrik is. Die agtergrond veroorsaak dat die uil bietjie wegraak in die foto. Ek sal ook voorstel dat die outeur die uil stywer crop in ‘n portret formaat. Sny die linkerkanste gedeelte af.
Panel Comments 5
The original image was very well captured and I particularly like the slight movement in the wings. It shows movement and the bird is in flight. As presented and compared with the original image, the author did very well in applying a horizontal flip.
There is however a concern about the Nature category. The thatch roof indicates captivity or a sanctuary and many arguments may follow but some judges may not approve of this.
Unfortunately the original image does have some problems
-
The eye is drawn to lighter areas and in this case the big area on the left marked in red circle competes with the bird. The same applies in a lesser value with the smaller red circle.
- The green circles indicate areas where the grass on the thatch roof seems damaged.
- A bigger problem is the background competing with the subject. It is of similar colour and one would like to separate the bird more from the background.
Suggested Post Processing
Because of the limitations of the Nature category I will suggest the following;
- 1. The cropping can be done like the image suggest below. The eyes are the focal point of this image and are so strong that placing it in the middle of the image would improve the impact of this image and will also remove the big distracting area on the left. With this crop, the wings are placed on the two thirds making the composition even stronger.
- The horizontal third is slightly below the bird giving the photo the impression that the bird is flying into the frame.
- With this crop, I do not believe the horizontal flip will add more impact.
- Lastly, the distracting damaged thatch roof was corrected using the clone tool
The final Image
Some adjustment in exposure (-1 stop) on the whole image and then selective exposure adjustment on the bird to bring it back to the original exposure seem to separate the background.
In an open category one could also apply a slight vignette to get rid of the over exposed thatch and focus the viewer on the bird.
Lastly
Well done with the image. The shutter speed was perfectly selected to freeze the bird, yet show the wing movement.
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