Quote:

This was just taken with green bushes in the background which made for very green reflections. I probably over-saturated the greens a bit in PS in my enthusiasm. I really like the contrasting bird reflections in the water. What do you think?




Dave,

Well since you asked nicely twice. These pond shots of birds with the colorful reflections are always tempting to a photographer. They can be a little tricky though. Frankly, this image has some real problems for me, the major one being that it appears to be way over processed. On my calibrated monitor this looks pretty electric with the saturation kicked up too high. Here is my evaluation for what it's worth...

Composition/use of frame space: 2
I dont' think the square format works well here (was this a 4:3 format camera?). The rear of the grebe is almost cut off and I get a cramped feeling. I like to leave some space in front of the bird, but a little trailing space is also nice.


Colors/White Balance: 2
Don't really know what the real colors looked like here. The colors I see do not come across as very natural, even for a reflection. The water is OK, but the grebe looks a bit gaudy.

Exposure: 3
Looks a little overexposed to me. The white hightlights on the grebe look blown. Background is OK.

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter: ?
Can't say much here. It would have been nice if you had included the shooting specs. Couldn't read any Exif data with Opanda.

Perspective: 2
I like the idea, but I think a more rectangular format would have been better.

Creativity: 4-Effort 3-Execution
I like the intention of the shot but I think it just didn't work that well. Might look better if processing was turned down.

Emotion: 2
Not really getting much here.


Forethought/Visualization: 3
I think you had the right idea here.

Post processing: 1
I've harped on this enough. Needs less.

I know where you're coming from on this. I'm always looking for these kinds of shots. I put one of mine up for critique a while back. You might want to take a whack at my efforts in this thread

http://www.nwpphotoforum.com/ubbthreads/...mp;page=0#11342

Some of my best
http://www.lamsonweb.com/Galleries/Photography
http://lamson.zenfolio.com/