Fancy the opera tonight?

[kangus]

Hello there!

First post and straight to the Whipping Post!

I've been taking snapshots for years but have recently invested in a 350D and am keen to learn the techniques and improve my skills.

See what you think...

Much appreiated.

http://kangus.smugmug.com/photos/63075024-L.jpg

EXIF (http://kangus.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=63075024)

[ultravox]

One could say that the background is blured/not so blurred, or the lack of contrast/to much of it, or beeing to sharp/not so sharp or the scene/subject aso.
You should judge oppinions with care.
Despite my low knoledge level in photography(I'm only an amateur) I do like your photo.:lust

ps. the wooden part on the right side looks not so nice. how about a small crop?
...you should judge oppinions with care...:rofl
========
Please, take no offens, nor you nor others, just wanna welcome you and beeing in a good mood I could'nt resist...
But I DO like your shot.

[SecondHand]

...I like this shot. I keep expecting to see Nemo and Dory flop out of the water. It seems a little OOF around the birds, but that may be my monitor. I agree with ultravox, make a little crop and get rid of the small bit of wood at the bottom right. Very neat photo. Well done. I keep looking and still haven't spied Nemo, but I'm not giving up.:D

[wxwax]

I like the shot. The birds are cool, the subject matter interesting.

A few things cross my mind. Some of them even have to do with your photo! :lol3 The white post is incredibly dominant. The right hand boid seems blown out around its head. The background looks a bit 'dirty' dark. The blur looks good, but the dock on the very bottom right looks odd. And finally, the top left corner seems empty. If you were to paste in a few blurred birds to fill the space, perhaps the gods of the golden ratio might be pleased? :dunno

[maegandougherty]

Great shot. Love the birds! However, and I don't have the technical knowledge or vocabulary to tell you how to fix, but this picture hurts my eyes! My eyes are too drawn to the OOF buidling and I keep looking at it and feeling like I need to get closer to the screen, or that my contacts fell out. I hope someone can give you better advice on the problem and what to change, because I do really like the way you composed the short and focused on the birds.

[pathfinder]

Hello there!

First post and straight to the Whipping Post!

I've been taking snapshots for years but have recently invested in a 350D and am keen to learn the techniques and improve my skills.

See what you think...

Much appreiated.

http://kangus.smugmug.com/photos/63075024-S.jpg

EXIF (http://kangus.smugmug.com/photos/newexif.mg?ImageID=63075024)


I really like this shot.:thumb

I like the positioning of the borders - I thought about a different crop left, right or top and think this is the best one can do.

I am not really upset about the post in the lower right either. If you prefer, I would rather it were cloned out than cropped on the right edge. Cropping the right edge moves the upper bird too far to the right for my eye, away from the upper right 1/3 position.

I like the way the birds are dead sharp, and the blurred, but easily identifiable Sydney Opera House sits in the background.

I have a couple of modest suggestions, that may be difficult to implement.

I might have moved my camera ever so slightly to the right, so that the condominium on the far shore partially hidden by the white post, was completely hidden by the white post. The condo adds nothing to the image, but clutter. Not bad clutter, but just my need to simplify, simplify,simplify.:): You could clone it out after the fact, but a little camera displacement might have hidden it at the time of shooting.

I think I would select the sky - the blue sky and the white clouds and darken them some - probably an Overlay Blend or a Multiply Blend after selecting the sky in whatever manner you are most comfortable with. I might try the Color Select or the Magic wand first. (Hard to do a Blend If in LAB space here without affecting the blue in the water.) Darkening the sky ever so slightly will help keep the viewer's eye on the subjects in the foreground, and further set off the Sydney Opera House.


I agree with Waxy that the post is big and white - but there you are - the post IS BIG and WHITE. I would not like the image better if the post were grayer or darker either. I don't mind the post - it is not the subject - the subject is the birds and the OOF Sydney opera House. Not a lot of things that you can shoot OOF like that and still have them command the image space.

As I said, I love the use of OOF backround that is still identifiable. I just wish I had taken this shot.:D

Oh ..... Welcome to dgrin!!

[Stormdancing]

I agree with PF
Enhance the sky
Clone out the highrise.

My other suggestion would be to try a vertical crop.
Wonder what that would do it?
Just eyeballing it that way, I would like it.

The shot has a comical air about it. They really look like they are talking:rofl

[kangus]

Hi again,

Firstly thanks to everyone for your constructive comments, a lot to think about.

I agree that the bit of wood in the right corner is superfluous but I think I came to the same conclusion as Pathfinder in that overall I was happy with the framing as it was. Its an interesting idea to clone it out. Having said that I just tried it with the crop and it looks good - now I can't decide which I prefer!

Stormdancing - when you say vertical crop do you mean changing the aspect ratio to vertical by lopping quite a bit off the sides? Interesting. It would mean loosing the little boat which I quite like but I suppose that's not really the main subject.

I take the point about the building behind the post. I had to go for this shot quickly in case my subjects decided to depart so I didn't notice it. This is something to be aware of in the future though.

I'll have a play with the sky. Unfortunately my image editing skills are slim but you've given me good pointers to start investigating these techniques.

Cheers,

[luckydog]

Hey Kangus, welcome aboard. :thumb

Great to see another local in here (we Aussies will take over this place soon). :rofl

I think everything that needed to be said has been said about the shot but I had to post to say Hi!

[kangus]

Hey LuckyDog!

Sorry, but I'm going to have to reveal myself as an imposter!

I've been living in Sydney for the last 3 months but I'm originally from Northern Ireland.

I'm travelling round the world and am actually about to move on this weekend. We're hotfooting it across to Perth and back via Melbourne and Uluru (wonder if there'll be much to shoot there?). After that we head to South America.

I have to say that Australia has been fantastic though. I've tried to get into the spirit of things - I've been surfing and eaten a lot of Tim Tams so I'll hope you'll accept me as an honourary Aussie!

Cheers,