Mute Swan

[AndyB1975]

Morning all.

Not been out that much recently with the camera, but thought these two images of a Mute Swan were worth sharing with you all. C&C always welcome.


A simple portrait in the early morning golden light:



A serene pose with a lovely reflection:

[Mike Buckley]

Both photos are gorgeous examples of elegant simplicity. Well done!

I do wish, though, that there was more space on the sides in the second one, especially on the left side. Also, these images are so good that, if your post-processing skills allow you to bring out every nuance of feather detail, they are worth the time required to make that happen. If you don't have those skills now, remember to revisit both images once you acquire them.

Again, very nice!

[AndyB1975]

Thanks for your very kind words Mike, most appreciated.

I also wish I had more room to play with on the second picture. Plenty of room on the right, but to the left of the Swan is the reflection of a power pylon (you can just see the edges of the reflection creeping into the left hand side). This additional reflection distracted far to much for my liking so I had to crop tighter to get rid of that.

My PP skills are a bit useless at present to be honest (hence why I couldn't clone out any of the Pylon reflection) and I only do very basic PP from the RAW file, but is something I am working on so your advice of returning to these at a later date is very good.

Quick question, does the Vignetting on the second picture work or is it a bit over the top? I was trying to go for a tranquill/serene feeling to the picture without making it to artificial.

Regards
Andy

[Mike Buckley]

I didn't notice the vignette on the second one until you mentioned it. In my mind, that in itself means that it's very tastefully done.

Once you obtain more post-processing skills, keep in mind that you'll be able to rather easily add more space to the left of the second photo.

[Karm Redland]

Andy, second image is great. I agree with all of Mike's comments. This second image should motivate you to developing your post processing skills. I think there is so much more that can be revealed in this image with additional processing.

Karm

[Brownbear]

Yes, the 2nd image is truly beautiful...

[Bootsy]

loving the second image

[AndyB1975]

A serene pose with a lovely reflection:

This picture has just been chosen as one of Nikons Top 10 Pictures of the Week (as part of their 'who am I' theme).

Im over the moon with that

[Brownbear]

Congratulations! Well-deserved!