I'm not expecting much with this and I'm hopeful I can get something better on the last day. I'm away on business for two weeks finishing close to dark each day so planned the weekend to go out shooting (images). Sigh... it rained all weekend (no moon shot for me either) so I sat for several hours on my hotel room 9th floor balcony. It was getting dark, I had my camera set at ISO 800 (which is twice as high as it should ever go) and was about to give up when these two turned up. I spent the next half hour waiting for them to hop from one place to another and managed to get this.
They're across the street and seven floors below so there is a fair amount of cropping happening here. I could crop it more but I like the background the way it is. I've also kept the birds central (not all rules have to be followed). This won't appeal to many but this is my photo :-)
I'm expecting many beautiful images despite Basic Editing, which mine will suffer in comparison. The more I've looked at it the more I like it (I loved it when I first saw it as I had to work hard for it) but I'm also realistic and I so I expect this to be in the high 4's or low 5's. I'm sure this would have scored higher in the Urban Nature challange thanks to the background.
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Hello from the Critique Club! You requested an in-depth critique and here it is:
You have captured a great urban grittiness. I think the high ISO worked in your favor here. The contrast between the ornate building elements on the left and the raw wall and rebar on the right is wonderful. But of course it's about the birds, and as such, the image is very cohesive, bringing the eye directly to the subject, which is suitably light and sharp (you know... besides the motion blur). The perspective - slightly from above - really gives the photo a lot of depth.
Normally I'm a frame hater, but in this case, the frame adds a finishing element, making the image more artistic than journalistic.
I love the tones of the image as well - and the light/dark contrasting areas.
What could be improved? Compositionally, the image is somewhat long, placing the birds in the center. I see where you wanted to include certain elements, so changing the layout would have sacrificed parts of the building ornaments. After holding my hand here and there to see how that would have worked, I wonder if a tighter crop wouldn't have been beneficial.
This is stunning. I love the birds, but I love the whole background. There's so much to take in here, yet it doesn't seem to busy -- just interesting!
(not voting, just commenting)
Fun shot. I experimented a little and found that I much preferred the shot if cropped with the birds being towards the top or towards the bottom of the shot (instead of vertically centered). I do think that they are fine horizontally centered as is.
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