Birdhouse before and after and afterer

[mistersmiff]

Here is a pic I took at Carl Sandburg's home in North Carolina. My wife was smelling flowers in the background. I love her but she had to go.



Here is the picture after I used Lightroom 2 to crop and touch up the levels. I then used Photoshop CS3 to remove the love of my life.



The setting said 'rustic', so I used a Lightroom preset to age it.


Please let me know what you think.

Exif data:
Exposure: 1/800 @ f/5
Focal length: 40mm
ISO 400

[chicagojohn]

Hi Mr. Smiff,

Here are a few "take it for what it's worth" comments.

In your original image, you had the birdhouse and fence roughly in the rule-of-thirds position, but you're right about having to have your wife go because that red blouse was a definite distractor.

The fact that this is Carl Sandburg's house enriches my understanding of your experience in capturing the image, but there is a huge gulf between our personal experiences therein and what can come across to the viewer simply from the image per se. So I think one has to take the bare image itself as the basis of comment or judgement, without regard to ancillary information.

In the crop where you eliminated your lovely wife, you centered the subject and put an unfocused fence post in the foreground, illustrating a photographic analogy to Newton's Third Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction; viz., I probably liked it better before the crop.

I do think your use of B&W contributes to the rustic nature of the subject. You might also consider sepia.

So, I like what I see you trying to do, but since you asked, my personal opinion would be to consider a different crop or possibly, in retrospect, original composition, using the rule of thirds but still incorporating the lines of the barbed-wire fence, and possibly coaxing your lovely wife to pose as if looking into the bird house.

[mistersmiff]

John,
No hurt feelings here. I agree I killed the rule of thirds with the crop. I consciously followed it when taking the shot. I just enjoyed the depth of field contrast with the crop. I still have all versions of it saved. 1 rule I do live by is take 20 or 30 pics to get 1 keeper, and I save every retouched version of a picture separately.

thanks for the time you took to contribute.

[chicagojohn]

Originally Posted by mistersmiff

John,
I consciously followed it when taking the shot. I just enjoyed the depth of field contrast with the crop. I still have all versions of it saved. 1 rule I do live by is take 20 or 30 pics to get 1 keeper, and I save every retouched version of a picture separately.

OK, now I see what you were trying to do. If you don't mind another comment or two, I think it would have worked better if the fence post and the background had been out of focus with the birdhouse tack sharp. That would have made your intention clearer to me as a viewer and it would have focused my attention on the only thing in focus; the birdhouse; which is an interesting subject. Center position would be fine if not preferable, even.

However, I think that would probably have taken a wide aperture to achieve, and I don't know how low the two telephoto lenses you used would go; generally not as low as a good prime lens such as a 50 mm f/1.4. Anothger option is to get a prime macro lense such as 100 mm with 1:1 capability. Unfortunately, both alternatives are pricey.

Another way, of course, would be to create out-of focus in front and back of the subject with PSE or other post-processing software, and maybe one of your images would provide more blurred background as a starting point, if you buy into the concept I'm talking about.

By the way, I'm a big fan of bluebird houses. We have six on our property, but have only had English sparrows and a few swallows so far. Thanks for sharing the image!