DId I get it right??

[lindalee]

Hey all ok so I have now had my camera for over a month and have been Practicing, Practicing, and Practicing and in doing so trying to get out of the habit of centering my subjects dead middle and finding it harder to remember than not..lol.. So here is a Photo I took of a Blue/Gold Macaw at Silver Springs in Ocala fl. Did I get the rule of thirds right?? I did crop the photo a little also to try to achieve it .

[Geoff F]

Personally, Linda, I'm not keen on forcing real life/wildlife shots to strictly conform to arbitrary rules.

You have a good shot here but for me there is just a little too much of that out of focus tree on the right. So I would reduce that by about half and probably end up with a 4 x 5 ratio crop.

I would also slightly tone down the brighter areas of the background on the left.

[Mike Buckley]

Just for argument's sake, if you were trying to use the Rule of Thirds as a rule rather than a guideline, the bird's head should be a bit higher and a little to the left. Having said that, all rules should be guidelines at the most.

This photo involves another "rule:" when the subject is a person or animal that is not looking at or facing the camera, allow plenty of space that allows the subject to look into. In this case, the two "rules" collide, making it impossible to adhere to both of them. To add confusion, the bird's only visible eye is looking to its left and its torso is facing toward its right.

So, if it was my photo, I would crop as Geoff suggests, to eliminate all but a small portion of the tree. I would also crop to leave very little space above the bird's head and to the left (from the viewer's perspective) of the bird. Doing so will ignore the Rule of Thirds because, in my opinion, it doesn't apply in this situation.

[lindalee]

Ok I am confused lol.. so Mike your saying crop three sides, top,and left and right sides? like this ?

[pnodrog]

I suspect you have cropped it a bit more than Mike envisaged. Below is a 5x4 crop that may suit. I have dodged around the eye area jut to give it a lift and toned down some background.
Lovely bird and great colours.



P.S. The beak is on a 1/3 but that rule is only a suggestion that often works but I think that the overall balance of a picture is more important.

[lindalee]

Ok Thank you .. I am very appreciative of all of your inputs. I am still getting acclimated to the do's and dont's and editing processes as well as the software itself. My friends of course are a little too eager to say Great Job, even though they mean well. So Thank you for your critiques I do appreciate it

[Polar01]

Linda there are no do's and don'ts, there is only suggestions, it is what you envision that matters, if others like it all the better, if not that is their outlook. You compose it, to how you see the final outcome not how they see it. Remember as a photographer you were there to take the image, and that is what you had to work with they were not. That is not to say that we will not make suggestions based on our own personal experiences as to how we may have done it. Most of us all have been there and/or are still there that is learning.

Cheers:

Allan

[lindalee]

Thank you Allan I will try to remember this.. I however am new to seeing my photos in a whole new way and am eager to hear what others have for input for it helps to know what others see when they see my photos, like are they seeing what I see ? do they get the Majestic feeling from these animals? or the Beauty in the everyday surroundings? or do I need to show them in a different way to bring them the awe I see when I look at them.

[Steve S]

There are lots of rules, linda. Rules that help you construct a good image. My advice is to learn all the rules , and learn them well, before you start breaking them.

For wildlife, focus on the eyes........try to give the subject enough depth of field.............try not to clip the subject, unless shooting a close-up...............leave some room for the subject to look into...............try to keep horizons, and any other lines from cutting through the subject......................and on, and on, and on..................Lots of rules. General rules of good photography. With some practice, you won't even think about most of them.

The most important of the rules, i think, are : check your foreground, check your background, identify your subject, focus, fill the frame, and exposure. Composition and lighting, are also important, but will take some time to learn. If you do the 6 things i listed for every shot, your photos will most definitely improve.


As far as the image you presented.................You left a tree in the foreground(check your foregrounds), which is distracting. You clipped the subject, but it doesn't look intentional. You could have filled the frame more, if you identified the subject and composition. The background is blurred, relatively clean, and darker than the subject....... you did that right. You got a good focus and focused on the eyes....................A very good exposure and white balance.

If this was my image, i would crop it like this, but would prefer to get it as close as possible to this, in camera first.

[lindalee]

Thank you Steve, I am copying and saving this advice so I can try to remember , and WOW what you did with my Photo wow! ... as for clipping the Macaw I was amongst others at Silver Springs park in fl and getting the people to cooperate with where I want to stand is humbling to say the least .lol.. I think I bumped into a couple kids trying to see the Birdie...lol

[splashy]

The last looks the best, but this might also be because the color was dodged, the second of Linda looks good also but a bit pale compared to the last.