IMG_2177
Converted from RAW, Lrcc, black and white, tones, curve, detail, noise, contrast, brightness, cropped, Pscc, healed, cropped, black and white, sharpness, noise, image size, saved for web
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Place: 59 out of 177 Avg (all users): 6.0088 Avg (commenters): 8.3750 Avg (participants): 5.8736 Avg (non-participants): 6.4615 Views since voting: 316 Views during voting: 185 Votes: 113 Comments: 9 Favorites: 0
This is really a lovely photo in a beautiful setting. The soft feel plays very well into the subject, and I think this works very well as a black and white. I do think a couple compositional and post processing changes could have greatly improved it, however.
One of the first things that will always kill a photo for me is a crooked horizon, and you have one. Even with the various skewed lines you have working here (particularly the line made by the sun reflecting on the water against the upward flight of the bird), correcting the faint horizon in the rear anchors the photo for the viewer - or for me at least (it's my #1 critique point when leaving comments).
My only other comment about the processing would be that I find many of the blacks to be "too black", particularly at the base of the upright shrub and in the shadows of the grasses. With the softness of everything else it feels too aggressive, as if it was overly backlit, which it obviously wasn't looking at the details in the birds.
Otherwise, compositionally there are a few things I could wish were different. I'd love for there to be a little more room to the right to give the bird more room to "fly" within the frame. I would have also loved to have seen a little more room under the reflection of the shrub and grasses - maybe another half-as-much. If I had my way I'd love to be able to grab the bottom-right corner and expand the crop down and to the right, landing the birds as close as I could to the left and right 1/3 lines of the photo. Or, choosing a different crop within the current view that brings the seated bird a little closer to the left edge so there's as much open space to the left as to the right. This would also eliminate some of the foreground grass that I find just a little distracting.
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