Purple Gallinule Reflection

[rpk717]

I shot this several years ago. It was a great opportunity not captured very well. I'm posting for you to give your honest opinion what you think is wrong with the image. I shot this at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, where these guys can be common in late June or July. I've heard they have been seen as far north as OBX but for me this is the most northern location where you can find them routinely.

[jckegley]

That is art Robert!

The first thing I noticed is the perfectly round ripples in the water around the beak. Way cool. The next thing is the reflection of the bird in the water. Way cool again. And last but not least, the bird is engaged in a task, while not fast action, this is an action shot. And don't forget all the colors....

The only thing I noticed that might could be improved is that there is a little bit of noise in some of the green colored background. That could probably be handled in photoshop, though the noise might be there because of having to make the photo small for this forum. I doubt the noise would show up if you printed the photo, or it would blend in.

I really had to search for anything that could be improved on. Plain and simple, it is just a beautiful photo! I would love to be the owner of that one. I have to admit that I have none as artistic or accurate as that in my collection.

joe k

[dholstein]

:) Robert! I agree with Joe on the color, angle, of the shot, ripples and etc.. Great!

On my screen the eye is there but not quite. PS could brighten the eye. Because of the shooting location you could not get an eye-catch but like you say its the best chance you had at the time. If you were shooting wide open [or were you] the background might have been more muted. Did I hit some of the things you were thinking.

Your friend Doug

[rpk717]

:) Robert! I agree with Joe on the color, angle, of the shot, ripples and etc.. Great!

On my screen the eye is there but not quite. PS could brighten the eye. Because of the shooting location you could not get an eye-catch but like you say its the best chance you had at the time. If you were shooting wide open [or were you] the background might have been more muted. Did I hit some of the things you were thinking.

Your friend Doug

Hi Doug, yes you have hit on a couple of the issues I have with this image. For one the eye really needs to be brighter, a little catch-light here would have been great. I was using a fairly cheap lens with a variable lens aperture so the background at f/5.6 was sharper than I would have liked. There is at least one more major problem I have with the shot.

[rpk717]

That is art Robert!


The only thing I noticed that might could be improved is that there is a little bit of noise in some of the green colored background. That could probably be handled in photoshop, though the noise might be there because of having to make the photo small for this forum. I doubt the noise would show up if you printed the photo, or it would blend in.

joe k

Joe, there is some noise as this is a severe crop. I originally shot this as a vertical so there was a major crop there, so the noise was increased. This should have been shot as a horizontal. There was an additional problem in that I did not have the camera level so I have to adjust the horizon to correct the ripples so they don't flow down out of the scene. This made the crop even more severe. This is basically my last complaint about this image, the crop is too tight for me.

[jckegley]

I am glad to see somebody else has had to use cropping to change from verticle to horizontal. I have had to do that numerous times. Of course I wish I didn't have to, but you got to work with what you have.

[mrsisu]

Well its been said and no matter what a very nice image

[Photobiologist]

I really like the colors & composition. The complementary greens in the plumage & the water lilies are great. More nits mentioned than I noticed...