Looking for Critique and Suggestions

Titled "Ascension". Honest critique appreciated. EXIF data:

	Canon Eos Rebel T3i
Lens	EF75-300mm f/4-5.6
Focal	300mm
Shutter	1/3200 sec
Aperture	f/14
ISO	1600

Thanks!

PT Talker wrote: Titled "Ascension". Honest critique appreciated. EXIF data:

	Canon Eos Rebel T3i
Lens	EF75-300mm f/4-5.6
Focal	300mm
Shutter	1/3200 sec
Aperture	f/14
ISO	1600

Thanks!

Humm, Maybe increase the contrast and play with shadows, maybe that do the trick. Cut a bit of the left side to be balance with the right side.

Your exposure baffles me. 1600 ISO? Too high for me. 1/3200sec. Too high. F14 too small.
At 200 ISO you could have shot at (about) 1/1000sec at F8 (Sorry, I only think in 1/2 stops)
That way you do not have to worry with quality when doing huge prints.
I think this shot is about as good as it could get.
My like my vignetting to be slightly less than yours, but that is debatable to taste.

Italian_Dreamer wrote: Humm, Maybe increase the contrast and play with shadows, maybe that do the trick. Cut a bit of the left side to be balance with the right side.

Thanks, Dreamer. I've tweaked it just a bit, mostly with a Levels layer. Some more playing might be in order.

Regarding the crop, This is pretty much as-shot, but I like the location of the highest gull, as well as having a little leading space there.

Thank you for the suggestions!

Hassner wrote: Your exposure baffles me. 1600 ISO? Too high for me. 1/3200sec. Too high. F14 too small.
At 200 ISO you could have shot at (about) 1/1000sec at F8 (Sorry, I only think in 1/2 stops)
That way you do not have to worry with quality when doing huge prints.
I think this shot is about as good as it could get.
My like my vignetting to be slightly less than yours, but that is debatable to taste.

Thanks, Hassner. I can see where you might be confused at the choices. Here's my justification, fwiw:

1) It was a very gray day with a storm moving in over the lagoon. Light was really low.
2) It's shot with a kit lens that isn't the least bit stable or sharp at 300mm.
3) It was very windy, so I wasn't very stable, either.
4) I don't usually shoot in shutter priority, so inexperience was the greatest factor.
5) These were a few of about 1,000 gulls that decided to fly in suddenly, so I switched the mode, rolled the ISO up and started shooting.
6) (and here's the best justification) I'm a much better writer, programmer and educator than bird photographer, but I'm working on that.

I sincerely appreciate the input and I think I'm inclined to agree with your "as good as it can get" assessment. It's not going to win any awards, but I like the shot in an emotional sense, hence the request for suggestions. I realize that "try again" is probably the best suggestion and I'll be doing that. lol

Oh, btw, regarding the vignette, I don't know if you can see it, but there's a white border on the image to offset that a bit.

My sincere thanks!

I am not qualified to comment on your choices, so I will just say how much I like the shot.  At first I thought it was a series of shots, but upon really looking at it, it was a great moment to capture.

Being a minimalist....

I think the crop is fine; I would never want them centered horizontally, especially since they were in flight from right to left. Me, I'd like more space on the left, and possibly above, since the seem to be moving in a slightly upward direction. My eyes do keep moving from bird to bird, but not (for me) in an objectionable way.

I think the vignette works here, and is not over done.

There could be more contrast/clarity on the birds to sharpen them up.

The choice of shutter speed with birds in flight is always a tough one. Next time: tripod or monopod, perhaps.

As said, you don't need f/14 at that distance. By moving to f/5.6 you could have lowered your ISO to 250.

For me.

stuartsbarbie wrote: I am not qualified to comment on your choices, so I will just say how much I like the shot.  At first I thought it was a series of shots, but upon really looking at it, it was a great moment to capture.

Thanks, Barbara! In regard to your being qualified, I'm open to suggestions from anyone with eyes. Besides, I've seen your photos and can't think of any reason for you to be too modest.

garyrhook wrote: Being a minimalist....

I think the crop is fine; I would never want them centered horizontally, especially since they were in flight from right to left. Me, I'd like more space on the left, and possibly above, since the seem to be moving in a slightly upward direction. My eyes do keep moving from bird to bird, but not (for me) in an objectionable way.

I think the vignette works here, and is not over done.

There could be more contrast/clarity on the birds to sharpen them up.

The choice of shutter speed with birds in flight is always a tough one. Next time: tripod or monopod, perhaps.

As said, you don't need f/14 at that distance. By moving to f/5.6 you could have lowered your ISO to 250.

For me.

Thanks, Gary. Your input is appreciated, as always. I'll see what I can do about sharpening up the birds a bit. In reference to eye movement between the birds, I definitely noticed the same, but I'm not sure there's much to be done about it. I actually flipped the image horizontally at one point, to make the transition from left to right, but it seemed to kill the dynamics for me. That really doesn't make much sense, so maybe it's simply because I know it's flipped.

I'll chalk this one up as a learning experience in shooting and open up next time around.
  
Thanks again.

I wondered too about the settings, even if it's cloudy/overcast I wouldn't think you'd need the ISO that high. I do sports (hockey) not birds lol so I don't know what the best shutter speed would be, check with some of the people on here who shoot wildlife.

I think the photo has a nice use of pattern and shape, but I think the use of space could be better. Maybe make copies and play around with some different crops. Usually when I see vignetting used to fill space, I wonder why is the extra space even in the photo? Having an odd number of objects can often help make for good balance in a composition, I think it's just a matter of figuring out how much space in what part of an image works best.

You might want to try different settings next time you're out with your camera, and make a note of what you did. Even though a digital camera is keeping a record of the settings it might help later when you look thru your photos to remember anything particular you did and then see what worked better or didn't work (how you framed a shot, how/why you changed your vantage point, how/why you determined to increase or change a setting, etc.).  

icepics wrote: I wondered too about the settings, even if it's cloudy/overcast I wouldn't think you'd need the ISO that high. I do sports (hockey) not birds lol so I don't know what the best shutter speed would be, check with some of the people on here who shoot wildlife.

I think the photo has a nice use of pattern and shape, but I think the use of space could be better. Maybe make copies and play around with some different crops. Usually when I see vignetting used to fill space, I wonder why is the extra space even in the photo? Having an odd number of objects can often help make for good balance in a composition, I think it's just a matter of figuring out how much space in what part of an image works best.

You might want to try different settings next time you're out with your camera, and make a note of what you did. Even though a digital camera is keeping a record of the settings it might help later when you look thru your photos to remember anything particular you did and then see what worked better or didn't work (how you framed a shot, how/why you changed your vantage point, how/why you determined to increase or change a setting, etc.).  

Thanks, Sharon! My ISO choice was arbitrary; I was in a rush to try and get some of the gulls that suddenly decided to drop in. (I wasn't there to shoot birds, they just descended on me.) As I explained in my reply to Hassner, I just switched to shutter priority and "thumbed" the ISO up - obviously way too much.  I normally shoot in aperture priority mode when I'm rushed and that probably would have been the best choice here, too. Lesson learned.

I added the vignette for 2 reasons: 1) The flat gray sky had no character whatsoever, and 2) To concentrate the light area on the center bird, since that's where a little bit of backlight showed through a wing.

Although I was shooting too fast to compose much, when I looked at this one in post I kept the negative space because I liked the overall feel of it. A little more lead space on the left probably would have been better dynamically.

So, this is one of several taken more or less "from the hip" and the first one I've played with from that series. I'll be playing with everyone's suggestions and seeing if I can make something from nothing here.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the input!