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Where'd All Macawlors Go?
Where'd All Macawlors Go?
crack_seed


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Animals In Black And White (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-600D/T3 Rebel
Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro
Location: Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo & Garden
Date: Feb 13, 2012
Aperture: 2.8
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/200
Galleries: Animals, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Feb 13, 2012

 Oh lord, what a fail title.

For this challenge my goal was to photograph an animal that is known for its color and then do a black and white of it. So in the end I settled on a photo of this Blue-and-yellow Macaw aka an Ara Ararauna. By losing its vibrant colors through a b/w conversion I felt that the Macaw had basically lost its identity. In order to portray this loss I tried to darkened the Macaw enough so didn't stand out too much against the all black background.
I'm a bit apprehensive entering this photo, but I really want some feedback on it.

Not much done in terms of post production other than cropping, sharpening, desaturating the original photograph, applied a quadtone, converted back to grayscale and then dropping the brightness down to -70 and upping the contrast to +50.

The color version for anyone that is interested:



Statistics
Place: 69 out of 172
Avg (all users): 5.9167
Avg (commenters): 7.0000
Avg (participants): 5.7381
Avg (non-participants): 6.1250
Views since voting: 517
Views during voting: 278
Votes: 156
Comments: 9
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 03/06/2012 03:34:55 AM
Originally posted by snaffles:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

The title isn't really all that bad and does draw attention to the fact that it's a very colourful bird, robbed of its beautiful plumage. I like the offset of macaw to the left (though I don't think the bulk if voters did, sadly), the focus is great and the dof captures a ton of detail including a good sharp eye. The one suggestion I would make is to jack up the ISO to 500 or 640; one of the few things about Canon that I do envy is their ISO performance. That'll bring out the whites, and imho it's always better to do that as much as possible in-camera than relying solely on pp, though a little more contrast wouldn't hurt.

Overall a very nice shot that finished just out of the 6s so not bad work at all. Keep on shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan


Thanks for the tip on using a higher ISO setting to help bring out the whites Susan. I'll be sure to keep that in mind the next time I'm out shooting.

Message edited by author 2012-03-06 03:36:00.
 03/02/2012 11:59:45 AM
Greetings from the Critique Club!

The title isn't really all that bad and does draw attention to the fact that it's a very colourful bird, robbed of its beautiful plumage. I like the offset of macaw to the left (though I don't think the bulk if voters did, sadly), the focus is great and the dof captures a ton of detail including a good sharp eye. The one suggestion I would make is to jack up the ISO to 500 or 640; one of the few things about Canon that I do envy is their ISO performance. That'll bring out the whites, and imho it's always better to do that as much as possible in-camera than relying solely on pp, though a little more contrast wouldn't hurt.

Overall a very nice shot that finished just out of the 6s so not bad work at all. Keep on shooting and entering!

Feel free to PM me,

Susan
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/26/2012 01:54:33 PM
Very punny :-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/25/2012 08:49:26 PM
Good sharpness and capture nice composition well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/24/2012 12:03:21 PM
Unfortunately, macaws look better in color. That being said, this is still a wonderful image. I love the fact that he is positioned to the left of the center. It's a great shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/23/2012 02:42:06 AM
wow, perfect.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/21/2012 07:42:26 PM
Good details in the feathers. Would like to see the bird just a touch brighter.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/20/2012 07:37:41 AM
This would've had a lot more pop if the whites were pushed up a bit.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/20/2012 03:07:37 AM
Maybe a little more contrast would give this one a bit more kick? I like that he is actually doing something not just sitting staring at camera.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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