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Marcus Crisp's picture

Minimalist Waterfowl

Went out this weekend and took about 500 pictures of blah photos. Nothing really stood out and it was pretty frustrating. So I decided to work with one of the shots anyways to see what could be done to elevate a ho hum image. Went for a minimalist approach with a Hooded Merganser.

Starting to play with minimalist concepts and it's kind of fun!

Would like to read your comments around the image. What would you do differently or what do you like?

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7 Comments

I think it's great, Marcus! I like the simplicity and the fact that the only colour is the bird's. Well done. Out of curiosity, have you done much in post e.g. to remove distractions? I'm wondering if there is some blurring around the bird; there is just something in the grey band that doesn't quite look right..

I took a look at your portfolio, and I like the direction you're going with this image and a few of the others. The lone bird among the darkness truly makes it stand out. I do notice the same as Chris though. The blur isn't so much the issue for me as the tone. It's not quite the right shade to match the surrounding darkness. Excellent composition and processing overall.

I suspect the strangeness in the gray that Chris and Matthew noticed may be the result of slightly imperfect dodging. If so, it might have been better to mask off the bird and adjust the background independently. How long a lens did you use?

The dodging was actually pretty bad in hindsight...was trying to stick with Lightroom and it just wasn’t enough. I’m a photoshop newbie, so I invested the time to learn how to get to the second edit. I used a 150-600 zoom to get the shot.

It's great that you are looking to expand into the world of minimal photography Marcus.

I think the image has great potential, but like others am distracted by the interface between the bird and the water.
Could this be due to a clarity adjustment in the water, or something similar? I think the bird is wonderful and the image has so much potential.

I'd love to see the original so we could know what you are working with.

Hey guys, I really appreciate your feedback which motivated me to take a second shot a editing the image! The first time I edited, I relied on Lightroom because it's what I'm comfortable with. Really had a hard time with the reflection/ripples around the subject...what you saw was a sloppy attempt to blend it away.

I bit the bullet and did some research to figure out how to get to where I wanted the final image to be in Photoshop. I think it paid off. Here is the original image and here is my second attempt at the final product.

Once again, this thread had some really helpful critiques which motivated me to edit in Photoshop which is outside my comfort zone...many thanks!

The second edit is much better. It looks fantastic.