Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image.
It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued. Your response will also be displayed with a link to your website or portfolio, so be sure to enter it correctly when submitting a comment!
Quick Ground Rules
- Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
- Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
- You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.
Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!
The Photograph
Photographer: Andrea Westmoreland
Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.
The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site, and you’ll also be given priority to feature your own work in a future Friday Photo Critique!.
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By David Appleyard
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I like it!
Just wish the entire wing span and more sky was involved this crop is almost too tight. A nice wide crop would have looked great IMO.
Oh wow!
Great shot! But indeed, I think a bit more sky would do great on this photo.
Awesome photo catch! Wish I was this quick with my camera!
I also have a problem with the cropping: I would have had not just a little more sky but also some of the surroundings (trees, mountains, etc.) to give a sense of scale.
Nice capture.
I like the left wing bleeding off the top left corner of the page but i think i would have kept the right wing in full.. since it is barely cropped it looks almost like a mistake.. or could have been..
Either way, NICE JOB!
I think it’s awesome that you even got a catch light in the eye! Those are so hard to get sometimes! I do with the wings were fully in the frame, but maybe if it were cropped differently it (vertically?) it would take care of it?
I’m actually going to have to disagree with everyone else about the cropping. I LOVE the cropping. Because you don’t see the wing-tips and the surrounding scenery you’re totally in the moment and totally focused on the EVENT that just happened. It’s so much more in your face. I get the sense that you are the squirrel that was standing right next to the one in that eagle’s talons and you’re the one that survived by some miracle of luck and you’re looking up with a mixture of relief, awe, and sorrow.
My only gripe is I wish the blacks weren’t quite so black. I’d like to see a tad more detail under those wings and maybe, to go along with that, a bit more punch of brightness to the sky.
Great shot!
Cropping is such sweet sorrow
Hey Guys,
My comments are a little long, but I am excited about this image.
I am in agreement with Mr. Mike Wilson. I think that the tones are a bit dark. I took your image into photoshop and did a quick adjustment with shadow/highlight to test my thoughts. Adjusting the shadow detail with a moderate reduction does a great improvement to the image. You also have a contrast problem that causes the image to look flat. They bird of prey looks as if its on a wall and not in the sky. Taking a high contrast approach by brightening the sky to about 10% white should really make the animals pop. Do some very light as dodging as well on the prey’s tail and the underside of the bird.
I also think that the crop would be more interesting in the wide format. I imagine that the crop was in part to the fast reaction time that you had to use in capturing the image, so not worries on that. Great way to capture the bird with full spread.
One last thing, The rule of thirds. You centered the image and at first I wanted to see more of the left wing with the wide format. If you have more image to play with in the RAW file, reprocess and rotate the animals to the right so that the prey’s tail is toward the bottom left corner. This will make the image more dynamic and give a greater sense of motion….Just tested this and I am correct.
Can you show us your result please? I would like to see what can be done with this shot. Thank you
I would love to but I have no place to post them. Just take the image and see for youself.
Nice shoot
The best picture until the friday photo critic exists.
And the best action bird’s photo i’ve ever seen (compo, lghtning, contrast, drama)
Congratulations
My opinion is that this image was cropped fantastically. My focus immediately goes to the majestic look held in the hawk’s eyes, then follows the frame down towards the stark contrast of the fallen prey. There is a lot of drama in this image when it is taken down to its core of hunter and hunted, the crop puts the focus where it should be.
I feel adding more sky or background would have taken away from the raw emotion this image holds.
I also like the choice to go black and white, again putting the focus on the subjects.
My only wish would be to see 1 or 2 stops faster in shutter so as to eliminate the slight blur you see in the wing tips, unless that is caused from a shallow depth of field, then in that case I of course would have stopped down the aperture a bit.
I can’t imagine catching this image was even remotely easy, given the circumstances I love what I see.
The black and white does not due justice to the shot from my perspective. It is an amazing capture, and could be handled in several creative ways. Crop in to just the talons and the head, a little creepy, but what impact. A vertical pano with the body of the squirrel and the talons. Just thoughts but again one great shot, demonstrating superb lens skill.
cool shot.
ha ha haa
Andrea,
I have two quick comments:
1) It is usually nice to have a background that adds to the story of your image. It might not have been possible in this situation. But if you’re going out to shoot things like this, it’s a good idea to think about it when setting up.
2) The action of the shot is great, but in my opinion the tones are WAY off. Being good at shooting and being good at toning are two totally different things, so don’t get discouraged. In this photo, you exposed for the highlights when I think you should have been exposing for the shadows. I did a quick 3-minute PS of the image. I ran levels, shadows/highlights and I also selected the eye with the lasso tool and brought the brightness and contrast way up. The last bit really makes the specular highlight or “catch” light in the eye pop.
Check out the result. I posted it here: http://ckpj.com/exampleedit.jpg
I love it exactly the way it is
A wider crop would have lost some of the details I love in both animals (feathers, fur…).
@cameron
Your PS work is nicely done but I think it completely removes all the drama of the action by bringing out too many details. The “dark” tones are a plus on the original picture.
I appreciate all the wonderful critiques and comments on this shot. Thank you so much. When I can find some time I will redo the shot using as much of the advice as my original allows and see what we get
It was an honor to have my photo posted for the Friday Photo Critique. Thank you, David Appleyard.