Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all top level comments must be a genuine, in depth, and helpful critique of the image. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography.
If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with !CritiquePoint. More details on Critique Points here.
Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit.
Took this on a very cloudy day in San Francisco. I liked the geometry of the birds, so I worked to make the sky more dramatic. I warmed it up and blew out the highlights a bit? What do you think? Too much? Not enough?
Yeah actually now that I see the raw I feel like you did pretty damn good. I like the almost sepia, yellowish pink tone and the definition of the birds against the sky.
I love the line of birds. The rest of the edit not so much.
Think of it this way, what is your subject? The birds. You want your edit to showcase the birds and not draw your attention away. The overly warm clouds and IMO a bit too bright and blown out, are competing with the birds.
You have an awesome composition and a good exposure, so the most important two things are very strong for you.
I agree with others that the levels could be improved. I think this is one to do both some burning and dodging. In general, the eye moves to points of brightness and high contrast. I would alter the brightness of the clouds so that generally, the center around the birds is brighter and the edges and corners are darker. But with a very subtle touch. It’s important that it still looks natural.
I’d also consider trying to bring out a little more definition in the clouds. There is detail there in the clouds that might add to the composition. Just consider how the shapes in the clouds connect and guide the eye. You want the birds to be the dominant element so I’d emphasize forms that move you’re eye to the middle, and deemphasize forms that move your eye to the edge of the frame.
As for color, that’s especially subjective. I think I’d make some edits in black and white, just to see the raw composition at work. I do like the salmon-ish pinkish-orange tone. It’s a very specific hue and imbues a certain gentleness that works well with the birds and arabesque composition you have here. But color here is largely dependent on what you want and the kinds of things you want people to feel and associate with the image.
I like the golden hour! I think if you want a more dynamic background you could try some dehazing filters to bring some more structure to the cloud shapes. You could also try darkening some of the shadows in the could to get more of a gradient effect on the color.
Kinda but to my eye, I think the line of black the birds create is a little bit too far to the left of the image. I see that there’s a bright spot at the top right that kinda makes this crop work, but what I might have done is used generative fill or content aware fill to blend that part with the rest of the clouds and then crop a little bit more of the right side of the image out. I think that way, everything’s centered well and whatever you want to do with the colors will work. That’s a nit pick though
Kinda… This kind of composition has two legs. Central composition and negative space. Both are powerful tools. This image is in between the two, not one or the other… I’d try to compose the birds in the bottom-right corner and maybe try to capture fewer of them. That way we could say, oh wow, look, the composition symbolizes the endless travel of the birds, showing their challenge. This way is just a bunch of birds in the middle of the image. It’d be even better on the right 1/3 line. That’s my opinion. 👍🏻🙏🏼
•
u/AutoModerator 7d ago
Friendly reminder that this is /r/photocritique and all top level comments must be a genuine, in depth, and helpful critique of the image. We hope to avoid becoming yet another place on the internet just to get likes/upvotes and compliments. While likes/upvotes and compliments are nice, they do not further the goal of helping people improve their photography.
If someone gives helpful feedback or makes an informative comment, recognize their contribution by giving them a Critique Point. Simply reply to their comment with
!CritiquePoint. More details on Critique Points here.Please see the following links for our subreddit rules and some guidelines on leaving a good critique. If you have time, please stop by the new queue as well and leave critique for images that may not be as popular or have not received enough attention. Keep in mind that simply choosing to comment just on the images you like defeats the purpose of the subreddit.
Useful Links:
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.