DSLR Photography Forum

Hey guys,

Here is a photo I took near my house of some Pelicans (with a bit of post-processing to make the sky a bit more dramatic).
I was hoping I could get some feedback on it. I've included a wider shot of the same scene (without the processing or flipping) so you can go nuts with different crops if you feel like it.

I really loved the texture of the poles the Pelicans are sitting on, but decided to cut them mostly out because they competed with the pelicans themselves as the dominant subjects.
The intention of the final crop was to make the foreground Pelican the centre of attention, and draw the viewer towards it.
I'd be interested to hear what advice you guys might give me on how I could improve it, or suggestions on an alternative approach.

Thanks
Adrian

The final image:


And the wider shot:

I'd go with pretty much what you did, however I would make it slightly wider to avoid clipping either bird. Like what you did with the sky, gives a really stormy feel.

These are fantastic. I really like the sky in #1. I just think the crop is a bit tight. #2 is great. The colour is very nice.

Beautiful picture. I like it very much. About the crop would do it like this.

Hmm, Irma and I were working on the same picture without knowing it.

Here is my suggestion, besides of the crop i blurred the background and desaturated it:

Thanks guys,

The texture of those poles is really nice, and it did seem a shame to waste it as much as I did. Obviously you guys think it is worth keeping more of it in.

And I'm glad you like the sky in #1.. I hope it doesn't look too fake. It was a bit more overcast than it seems in #2, and it did feel like a storm was coming in, but the sky was just so boring and bland I had to do something with it.

Guerito, I particularly like your crop. For some reason, the crops I originally tried didn't quite work when I left both birds completely in the picture. I wanted the background bird to be an echo of the foreground bird and give the viewer the impression there could be other birds sitting on other poles outside the frame. For some reason the only thing that seemed to give me that effect was by clipping the edges off the birds. It totally works the way you did it though

The blurring of the background bird also works very well, and I had actually done that as part of my edited image at the top of the post. But you have blurred it more than me, and I think it works better.
I'm not so sure about the desaturation though. I think it is the colours that really make this image.
It does still work the way you've desaturted the background, and it also draws more attention to the foreground bird, but perhaps it is a little distracting? hmmm.. perhaps if the background were only partially desaturated, and maybe underexposed a bit then it might work better?

Thanks
Adrian

You're right about the colors, Adrian. Irma told me the same when she saw what I did to your picture. The total desaturation is way overdone. I'm not sure if any desaturation is necessary, but I tend to overdo things sometimes.

About the crop: I think it works better because it's a different image. In the one I cropped, the birds are close together. In the one you cropped the birds are quite a bit apart, so the echoing idea will be more difficult or even impossible to convey.

BTW I didn't mention that I really like the pictures. The birds are beautiful, and the poles... I love poles.

These are absolutely awesome photos, Kombi! It's amazing what a dramatic difference you've made with post processing (even adding in an extra leg!! ) I love the sky in the final version and the difference between the birds (standing vs sitting) spices things up a bit.

That said, I love the original shot as well. I think that if you did the same dramatic lighting, the 2nd one would come alive as well.

shuttertalk Wrote:(even adding in an extra leg!! )

I was wondering how in the world you levitated a pelican and added aleg, until I re-read your post and realized #2 was another shot of the same scene - not the original of #1! Looks like ST mis-read too!

Kombisaurus Wrote:I've included a wider shot of the same scene (without the processing or flipping)

Haha... my mind registered "version" when I read "shot"...

thanks for the kind words

To Cailean and ST, I wish I could say that am using a special version of photoshop, called "photoshop 3D" which allows me to move objects in 3 dimensions and the software calculates and reveals what *would* have been behind them in the original scene - so it drew the extra leg and filled in the hole in the background behind the bird when I moved it from sitting to standing.
I can use the same software to actually rotate parts of an image in 3d as well... see photo below:



hmmm.. what? what? why doesn't anyone believe me? hehe
Adobe could make a lot of money if they developed such a package...

Actually, those pelicans were great models. After a couple of minutes, I realised they had settled in for the rest of the day and weren't bothered at all about my presence, so I really took my time and experimented with various compositions.
these photos are all taken from a jetty that ran beside the poles, but I took others from the beach and so on. It was one of those really valuable lessons in photography for me (not to mention a lucky find), and I was really pleased with the results.
Looking at the state of those poles, I'm sure those Pelicans are regular visitors there, so I'd like to go back and take some more photos under different light conditions. The lighting was really quite uninspiring at the time, and I was quite suprised how well it managed to scrub up with a bit of contrast and drama in the sky.

Cheers
Adrian

Wow, where do I buy me a copy?!?!