Captive Category Voting Analysis and Related Comments

Captive Category Voting Analysis and Related Comments

Totals of the Judges’ Votes (each of 5 judges awarded each image 1-5 points):

1-Toucan: 23
2-Philippine Eagle: 21
3-Great Horned Owl on curved branch: 18
4-Red-tailed Hawk: 17
T5-Bald Eagle screaming: 16
T5-Flamingo head & neck: 16
T5-Flamingo legs with shadow: 16
8-Barred Owl sleeping: 11
T9-Waterfowl Sleeping: 9
T9-Great Horned Owl vertical: 9

Public Voting Totals (each of you was asked to vote your five favorite images 1-5 points with 5 being your favorite):

1-Toucan: 444
2-Philippine Eagle: 429
3-Red-tailed Hawk: 285
4-Great Horned Owl vertical: 175
5-Flamingo head & neck: 151
6-Waterfowl Sleeping: 140
7-Bald Eagle screaming: 134
8-Great Horned Owl on curved branch: 133
9-Flamingo legs with shadow: 108
10-Barred Owl sleeping: 86

The images below are presented in the order of the judges’ placement as above along with my comments.

Toco Toucan, Image copyright 2102: Stan Hoyt

The toucan image above was a narrow winner in both the public and the Judges’ voting. The bright colors, black background, tight composition, and wire-cage eye highlight caught everyones’ eye. That said a slightly wider crop, a bit of bill clean-up, and a Linear Burn on the WHITEs would have made this one even stronger. Darkening and evening out the background and selectively applying Noise Reduction and a Surface Blur there would have done the same. None-the-less the graphic impact of this image won the day.

Philippine Eagle, Image copyright 2012: Alain Pascua. Before and after animated GIF.

The regal and powerful Philippine Eagle image featuring this majestic bird’s spectacular raised crest was runner-up in both voting categories. With some Photoshop work that would include background smoothing and bill clean-up (both allowed by the lenient competition rules) this image might have overtaken the toucan image for first place; unusually light areas of background will almost always draw the viewer’s attention away from the subject as the whitish circles did here…. For the background clean-up Denise Ippolito (thank you very much Lady D) used a reduced opacity Clone Stamp Tool, the Patch Tool, and an inverse layer mask and selectively ran Noise Reduction on only the background. I added a bit of bill clean-up to produce the “after” image in the animated GIF above. All as described in detail in Digital Basics.

Great Horned Owl on curved branch, Image copyright 2012: Eric A. Rosen.

This image–by a very small margin–did well better in the judges’ voting than in the pubic voting. I loved the rolling hills, the killer clouds, and those huge talons but especially the creativity that went into the design of the image. Selectively lightening the subject would have improved this one.

Red-tailed Hawk

This very strong and sharp image with the killer wing position suffered only from the the dark above/light below background with the strong line of demarcation between the two. Images with dark above/light below motifs almost always have a strike against them as the light area dominates and draws the viewer’s eye. Fourth place with the judges and third place with the public represents another strong correlation in the voting, a clear indication that the cream has risen to the top in this category.

Bald Eagle screaming, Image copyright 2012: Paul Klenck. Canon 50D and tripod-mounted Canon 300/2.8 + 1.4x. f5 at 1/160, ISO 200.

Flamingo head and neck

Flamingo legs with shadow before and after

The three images above finished in a tie for 5th place in the judge’s voting. “Bald Eagle screaming” (7th in the public vote) is a powerful image with a sweet background and a good head angle. Bringing up a bit more detail in the WHITEs on the top of the head would have improved it. This image and many Bald Eagle images in the contest seemed to suffer a bit of prejudice with the official judges perhaps because they have been seeing too many good photos of this species in recent year. “Flamingo head and neck” (5th in the public vote) is an elegant and beautifully designed zoo shot; the curve of the neck captivated everyone. “Flamingo legs with shadow” (9th in the public voting despite some ardent supporters) did the same by way of the wonderfully creative image design. Both Denise and I felt that it too could have been greatly improved within the rules. For the after image I cleaning and blackened the shadow, cleaned up the substrate, and reduced the contrast as seen in the animated GIF above. Clean-up and contrast adjustments as described in detail in Digital Basics.

Barred Owl sleeping

“Barred Owl sleeping” placed 8th in the official voting and 10th in the public voting. Those sky blue eyelids make this peaceful a joy to behold. A bit darker overall with a bit more contrast would have improved this one.

– Waterfowl sleeping

Great Horned Owl vertical

The two images above tied for 9th in the judges’ standings. Many (including me) loved the colors and the soft tones in “Waterfowl sleeping” (a stronger 6th in the public voting). I am pretty sure that some of the judges felt as I did that this one was a bit tight in the frame and that the steep angle of declination to the subject detracted somewhat. “Great Horned Owl vertical” is a pretty much perfect image; I could not think of a single way to improve it. It is nicely framed, the light is sweet, the green background and the mossy perch are killer, the open bill is a plus, and those huge talons rock. It suffered only from the strong competition and, as with the screaming Bald Eagle, perhaps from a bit of judicial prejudice; this is a commonly photographed rehab species. On second thought, a bit more room all around would have yielded a more pleasing image.

Comments Welcome

Your comments on the images, on my analysis, or the voting are of course welcome. Again we ask those who had honored images to leave a comment letting us know their name, which image or images are theirs, the location, and the gear that they used.

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