Nazca Booby + Repost

Great species, nice and clear shot. As always with these shots I think that I may have chosen for a real portrait - this is somewhere in the middle of a portrait and a full length shot - on the other hand in combination with the pano crop it's quite an interesting image... , Cheers, Hans

Thanks much for the feedback, Hans! The comp/crop of this image is where I spent the most time in post-processing. I tried all kinds of different comps, but this is really the one that I saw in my mind's eye as soon as I viewed the original on my monitor, and, at least for me, provided the most dramatic image. I certainly realize, though, that it's a very different "amount of bird" which appears in the final version. Won't work for everyone, but one of the goals with this was to produce something unusual.

----> Follow-up question: is this image too dark? I believe my monitor is calibrated for color correctly, but I think maybe its brightness level is too high, making images I process look dark when viewed on other monitors. Thanks in advance for your answers.

Rebecka, I love the background color with this bird, one of my favorite Galapagos species. I like the choice of pano crop too, though I'd be tempted to cut some off the right side in order to get the booby out of the center more.

Max

Nice shot. The pano crop is an interesting choice and I like it. Must admit I would like to see the whole bird too.

Lovely capture and I like the background treatment. I would also be inclined to crop from the right to off-center the bird. Great image!

Super crisp with a great look at the eye and I really like the head turn, Rebecka. If this were mine, I think I'd be tempted to add a bit of canvas to the top.

Pose is very nice, though would love to see the entire bird. The BG is a little too intense for my taste. I'd like to desaturate it some. The detail shows up well in the larger image.

Thanks for more feedback, gentlemen! I tried taking some off the right, and also not taking as much off the top, and guess what, it's an image which would probably work better for the vast majority.

99.9% of the time I take the word of the amazing talent on this forum as gospel. And my work has improved vastly because of it; you all have taught me so much! In this one teeny instance, though, I'm going to call on artistic prerogative. It's inexplicable, but I like this strange and unusual comp.

Rick - re: background intensity - yes! That was the question I had about my monitor possibly being set too brightly. When I viewed the image on another screen (my iPad) the BG looked too deeply saturated, and the overall image was darker than I had edited to be. So here is a repost, with the BG sky slightly desaturated and brightened.

Great pose and wonderful intense blue background. Exposure is perfect too.

I like the pose you managed in this one and the repost looks to be better on the overall darkness, my only nit is I am not really into the pano crop on this one. I like the fact you went with a portrait, but I personally would bring it back to 11.5x8 or even 8x10. If mine, I would ask myself....why am I showing a portrait? My personal answer would probably be; to make the viewer feel more intimate with my subject. If I move it to a pano, I just took away that feeling again. Just my two cents. I still like it.

What an interesting pose! And the BG is to die for! I disagree with Chuck, in that I would crop to the edge of the white cloud on the left - giving him center stage.....

I really love it as presented. Plenty of details, nicely exposed. All around a fantastic image! You could probably brighten it a touch.