Critique Swan (B&W)

[Gav.]

Been trying for a while to get a Swan image that'll work in B&W, think I'm happy with this one.
C & C welcome as always.

Thank you for looking.


Untitled by Gavin Wickham, on Flickr

 

[foto-sf]

Pretty sure I commented on this already... anyway...

Shooting a white swan in bright sunlight is really tricky. Certain surface lose all detail simply because they reflect light and they look over-exposed even though they aren't. I think the exposure in this shot is good. Nicely done. The bokeh is good too. While the detail is good I feel it could be sharper.

The main difference if I were to process this is the framing: set ratio to 16:9 and zoom out a bit more so that the 'disturbed water' (I don't know the English word) is fully in the frame. Zoom out enough that the swan is in the right third of the frame and maybe a little lower too. This will make the swan smaller in the overall image and will help disguise the sharpness issue.

Depending on the mood you're going for you could increase the contrast and shadows. Personal taste.

This would look great printed and framed with a wide passepartout.

 

[Gav.]

Pretty sure I commented on this already... anyway...

Shooting a white swan in bright sunlight is really tricky. Certain surface lose all detail simply because they reflect light and they look over-exposed even though they aren't. I think the exposure in this shot is good. Nicely done. The bokeh is good too. While the detail is good I feel it could be sharper.

The main difference if I were to process this is the framing: set ratio to 16:9 and zoom out a bit more so that the 'disturbed water' (I don't know the English word) is fully in the frame. Zoom out enough that the swan is in the right third of the frame and maybe a little lower too. This will make the swan smaller in the overall image and will help disguise the sharpness issue.

Depending on the mood you're going for you could increase the contrast and shadows. Personal taste.

This would look great printed and framed with a wide passepartout.

This is a slightly differant frame, you did comment on the colour version
I agree on the framing, I was shooting prime lens and couldn't move so lost distance.
Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated

 

[sk66]

My take on it...
Eliminated excess BG which I feel only competes for attention. Leveled it. And some exposure tweaks (masked). The only thing I edited out/removed was the dark spot in the wake below the bird.



Now I feel the focus is fully on the swan; and the finer features/tonalities can be more readily appreciated.

 

[sk66]

Some would probably say I broke all of the compositional rules; but I really didn't... the face is solidly on a 1/3 intersection strong point (more/less by chance actually; I don't use the 1/3 overlay normally).

 

[Gav.]

@sk66
Thank you for the feedback and for taking the time to do an edit, gives me something to think about, really appreciate it, cheers Steven

 

[Dale.]

I've looked in on this a few times Gav. I do like it and sometimes, swans make great B+W subjects, something you won't often hear me say about wildlife.

Your conversion is very good, a suggestion though would be to drop the blacks, this will increase contrast. Just use the black slider in Lightroom or maybe a curves adjustment in Photoshop. One thing with B+W is that usually, you can really punch the contrast and it will pop.

It would look lovely on a wall, in black frame with a white mount, or on a canvas. I really like it.

 

[Gav.]

I've looked in on this a few times Gav. I do like it and sometimes, swans make great B+W subjects, something you won't often hear me say about wildlife.

Your conversion is very good, a suggestion though would be to drop the blacks, this will increase contrast. Just use the black slider in Lightroom or maybe a curves adjustment in Photoshop. One thing with B+W is that usually, you can really punch the contrast and it will pop.

It would look lovely on a wall, in black frame with a white mount, or on a canvas. I really like it.

Thank you, Dale, appreciate the feedback, I will have a play, with all the feedback in mind and see where I end up

 

[ancient_mariner]

Nice piccie Gav, and some good advice too.

The only suggestion I could make might be to try altering the chrominance of yellow+orange vs green+blue if you're in Lightroom, or using coloured filters if you're in a B&W package like silver Efex - the idea being to increase separation between the bright feathers and the background.

 

[Gav.]

Nice piccie Gav, and some good advice too.

The only suggestion I could make might be to try altering the chrominance of yellow+orange vs green+blue if you're in Lightroom, or using coloured filters if you're in a B&W package like silver Efex - the idea being to increase separation between the bright feathers and the background.

Cheers Toni, I only use CaptureOne, I did mess with the colour adjustments, I found mucking about with the individual RGB channels along with the WB made some nice changes, I've got a bit to learn on the B&W tweaking and 'training my eyes'