Theme: Over The Falls

[Randall Farhy]

A Mallard Drake taking flight above the Ernie Day Overlook spillway on New Market Lake in Piscataway NJ.

Topaz Adjust5 Custom preset blended on Darken mode.

2 Shadowhouse productions texture layers, clouds and antique paper, both at varying opacity.

Gradient layer, midnight blue to darken lower area.

Liquify applied to the waterfall area to mask prominent bokeh present In the original.

CW rotation to somewhat level the false horizon created by the top of the spillway.

85% frame intact, most of the crop from the bottom.


As always, C&C welcome and appreciated.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very dynamic shot Randall. I like your subtle textures and the catchlight, the droplets off the foot, and colours on the mallard. The crop to more of a pano I think works well, and my only suggestion would be to add canvas to the left for the bird to fly into.

[Dennis Bishop]

This is, indeed, very dramatic. There's a good feeling of depth, and the background is an important part of the image without being distracting. Although I like the image very much, I'd like to see less contrast on the mallard, especially its wings.

[Randall Farhy]

Thanks Jackie and Dennis-I'll rework this one during the week with your suggestions. To be honest, I'm not so sure I really like the waterfall-it looks gimmicky, kind of like flames painted on the side of an old custom car. Here's the original file, processed in a traditional manner with LR5, with 4 points of CW rotation to level the false horizon, the colors are not exaggerated. If anyone feels up to it, I'd be interested in seeing how other's would treat this. (I'm currently trying to work one up with a full size reflection of the bird with clouds to mask the waterfall, but I'm running into issues getting the horizon line to look realistic.

[Dennis Bishop]

After seeing this, I'm even more impressed with what you'd done with the falls -- a little like flames on a custom car, perhaps (although it hadn't struck me that way), but a major transformation and a positive one. I do like the waterfall idea. Later today, I hope, I'll take up your challenge and try incorporating something from some waterfall images I've taken.

[Dennis Bishop]

I scratched the idea of putting in another falls in case you'd want to rework the image in a similar way and didn't have something to use. Instead, I went with something that nearly obliterates the bokeh you wanted to diminish but, as a consequence of the method, gives the whole image a much different feel. With the exception of a texture (lavender sky with a white bottom from Flypaper Textures, which went between the original and a pasted selection of the mallard) and a Nik Color Efex fog preset, everything was done with Photoshop filters and Curves. The filters were a slight blur pretty much masked off the eye and bill with a soft brush and a graduated (gradient mask) monochromatic noise layer in Screen blend mode masked completely off the head.

I have another really bizarre idea and might try it out, later. I really like your shot of the mallard.

[Nancy Bell]

This is interesting to see the image morph in different ways. I like the bokeh in the water in image 2 but the solid blue line takes too much attention from the rest of the image. That could be toned down. You captured a wonderful sharp image of the mallard in flight and for that reason I prefer not to see it hazy or blurred. I think that is the bird photographer in me speaking :S3:.

[Randall Farhy]

Dennis, I really like the colors and softness to the bg you've created, though I too would keep the bird sharper. I think I'll file this idea for the future as it would solve the split frame issue with this shot quite effectively. I appreciate your assistance and look forward to whatever ootb ideas you have, no matter how "whack"-

[Dennis Bishop]

I told you it was going to be bizarre, but it's just for fun. I think my inspiration was Jackie's, " . . . and my only suggestion would be to add canvas to the left for the bird to fly into."

[Randall Farhy]

LOL, Well I didn't see that one coming! I actually like the concept. I could picture this being a 3d sky cube the bird is breaking out of, with each side being a different sky scene, or rendering of the same.

[Dennis Bishop]

That would be wild!!! I'll let you tackle that one.

[Anita Bower]

An good example of shallow dof. I like how the falls mimic the shape, color and angle of the feathers. Your concern that they look like flames might be addressed by making the falls lighter, thus less prominent in the image. I'd like to see a bit more room on the left, and I might lighten the very dark areas on the head. I like this image. It has impact!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I love Dennis's final post. So cool. What program did you use to get the bird breaking through the picture?

[Dennis Bishop]

I love Dennis's final post. So cool. What program did you use to get the bird breaking through the picture?

The easy, one-word answer is Photoshop. It's done manually with the Polygonal Lasso and regular Lasso tools, some fills, and some layer styles, mostly. One of the tricks is converting layer styles into layers. I'd found an excellent tutorial when I was working on another image and followed its instructions. http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/punch-through/

[Randall Farhy]

Thanks Anita, I'll give that a go as well, you have a strong eye for subtlety. Dennis- as soon as I figure out how to work in 3d, I will give it a go. It's on the list for "new stuff" this week. Thank you for the link and inspiration. I feel like a kid in a candy store sometimes!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Wow, what an interesting thread and variations on an image. One of the things I liked about the OP was the combination of browns and the blue in the water. And I loved the bokeh in the 2nd post. Dennis' last post really took me by surprise - it's really nice. What a bunch of talented people:cheers: