Hangin' At The Pierby
ScottKComment by inspzil: Greetings from the Critique Club
**Special Edition** by Inspzil
Composition - I had a heck of a time telling what this was. I know when I voted, I had no idea what it was. I think the idea is pretty good, but maybe the angle the picture was taken at shouldn't have been quite so straight down so it would be a little easier to tell what we're looking at. (Clarity of subject on DPC is really important IMO). There isn't a lot of color to this photo. It may be the kind of photo where you don't really lose a lot greyscaled. But you'd have to actually do it to find out. Sometimes black and white works instead of having little color or sort of bland colors.
Technical - I'm surprised you got this great a depth of field (DOF) with f/2.8. I would've expected the bird to be focused but not the water. The lighting seems pretty good with this photo too. The water does not have any blinding reflections in it which is good. Shooting on water can be tough. Not as tough as snow, but I've done my share of sunrise stuff and the exposure has to be just the right balance or something is really lost. The most advice I have here is pretty much the same as the composition - Give yourself another angle to work from. Pigeons were not made to be 2 dimensional, especially not from the top.
Overall - Pretty good start. I'd have been overjoyed to have 5.2 right off the bat. I started around 4.9 so I think you're off to a good start. Keep your photos generally crisp. There are more emotive pics where lack of clarity of subject does not affect the image or affects it in a positive way. These are pretty special images and it has to be just the right picture, or else it will earn the blurry tag. You've done pretty well with the sharpness of this photo. The other thing I'm seeing is that there might be a little more water than you need in this photo, and that is easily corrected with a little tighter crop. I always ask myself why I do things or why I am keeping them the way they are. Sometimes there are specific reasons, and sometimes it just looks better that way. Depends on the situation of course, but over time you'll figure out what DPC voters like and don't like. And once you figure that out, it will all change and you won't have a clue, again. This isn't bad, but there are a couple things that I'd consider looking at again. Try desaturating it, then adding back a little color. You may find it works for you. You may find it looks like poop. Well I hope this could be a little helpful for you. If you have any questions, email me at inspzil@yahoo.com and that doesn't just apply to this photo either. I'm no expert, but I'm making strides to being a better photographer. It shows on my profile page too I think. Good luck and welcome to DPC - Bob
Photographer found comment helpful.