A Little Birdie Told Me......by
battymaddieComment by FrankRobinson: Hi Madelyn - welcome to the Critique Zone!
I'm afraid that I'm not sure that the bird made that much difference to the voters. With the bird, you have an interesting focal point (and title), without the bird, you have a pretty sunset. I think that your concept was excellent, but I'm not sure it really worked in practice.
Technically: This has a really high shutter speed - metering off the sun, I'm guessing. So you know that everything else is going to be a silhouette. Given that the silhouettes are then your subject they need to be really sharp and they're not - the water is bang on in the middle but that doesn't help.
PP: You have boosted the hell out of the saturation and contrast, which makes the final output very red, and a little 'blocky'. I suspect that a slightly more delicate touch (perhaps trying to preserve some blue in the sky for balance?) would have been more pleasing, but not seeing the original I'm guessing! The vignette doesn't really add here - it needs to be stronger if you really want to see it.
Artistically: Personally, I think that the bird could make this shot, but he is pretty small against everything else. Personally I would have either zoomed or cropped this to about 75% of it's current size, losing most of the bottom inch to make the focus more about the lone shelter with the bird, against a beautiful sea and sunset. That would also help with the sharpness / focus issue as bigger objects are easier to ensure sharpness for.
Overall, this shot comes across more as a tourist snap than something taken by a photographe with your skills (I checked the portfolio!) and not to mention, equipment! But... with just a slightly different perspective and a lighter PP touch, I think it could be stunning.
Hope that helps
Frank.
Photographer found comment helpful.