Colleen Logan

The first one the highlights are blown out. So if the second one is a HDR I say HDR. Has the silky effect in the water and the overall lighting is much better. Does not appear to be over the top HDR

Thanks Everyone! In lightroom the whites show no clipping but I felt the same way. I think the detail was lost because of the slow shutter speed. As for the focus… that’s where I was really stuck. I liked the way the water swirled after leaving the wheel so maybe I should try a portrait crop. @dpickles53…. yeah I haven’t touched it up in…[Read more]

The crop leaves the head appearing disconnected with the body. Also the head is dead center. I would have shot landscape with the head in the upper left third of the frame. The curve of the body would have drawn your eye around the shot. I would have kept the shallow depth of field an kept the reflection.

The shadow on your backdrop is distracting. If you have your subject step forward away from the backdrop it should help eliminate the shadow. The shadow under the chin is also a bit strong. Are you shooting with an umbrella? Softbox might be a better choice.

Read once to never cut a body part off at a joint. This looks like a head shot but has an awkward arm growing out of her head. Should have pulled back or better…. asked her to lower her arm out of the shot.

Narrowing your depth of field to isolate the tree would have helped a lot. Also the foliage on the left side is distracting I would have tried to avoid it in the shot or cropped it out. A tight crop highlighting the moss is also a good suggestion.

I agree with @mc-fowler, cropping it portrait, keeping the eye to the right would draw your eye up the neck and then to the eye and the beak making it a stronger composition.

Thank you 🙂

I think you dealt well with the background with a short depth of field. And I love the texture the fence adds.

SANDPIPERS by Colleen Logan on Light Stalking