Swan C&C

PaulieC

first time swan pic, not really sure what's good and what's not. Tips appreciated as I've found a few nests close to my house...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/190/461362456_8aa6c54839.jpg

Thanks

elven

I like. I think swans have been photographed so much that if you're going to take a picture that just tries to show the bird itself, you'll have a hard time making it stand out at all because it's been done so well so many times already. But what you've done here is include the swan as part of a very strong, graphic composition that I think does more for it than a straight shot. I like the bright delicate white against the dark water, and the reflections in the water are interesting too, without taking attention away from the swan itself. My only nitpick is the bird being on the left 'looking' out of the shot rather than on the bottom right, facing in to the middle - but that's possibly more of a "following rules for rules sake" thing than anything else.

It looks really good straight like that but I also think it has potential for messing around with, I think I'm going through a grunge stage or something because I'm thinking grain and a warm/dirty brown/sepia tone might work, purely as an alternative approach.

Noah has some fabulous swan pictures in his Corkeagh Park set, I think. (www.noahgrey.com)

Ghost Train

Strange how dark it is around him
With such an empty photo (except for the swan) the position of the swan in the photo is quite important. Might be better if he was more to the centre or back a bit. Down in the bottom left doesn't really work I think. The other think is the contrast/white level. Could be my monitor, but the detail in his body seems to be lost because the camera exposure was a bit too high, setting the exposure compensation down a bit would solve that