ghost brant--a "pleasing blur" ?

[Bob Smith]

148437I was just on the verge of trashing this image ( the original of which is way overexposed and badly focussed ) , and several in the same sequence, but stopped, wondering why I liked it. I pushed the highlights and exposure even further and that cinched it. After mulling it over for a while I realized that it personified my mental image of brant as a ghost bird of the seas. They are a good size black bird with a body about the size of a mallard and a wingspan of a small goose and yet they can materialize out of nowhere when you are lying watching for them at water level. They are amazing flyers, with the ability to tuck in their wings and accelerate like an F15 and manoeuvre like swallows, or to cup those big wings and sail across in front of you like a flight of kites. This shot was taken as I stood out in the open in a receding tide on Boundary Bay.
5D MIII,EF 400 f4 DO IS;ISO 1000,f/16,1/90,0 EV: PP in Aperture

[WillieHall]

I do know a little about brant and you do having something here. I would really like to see how it looks with the middle bird cloned out. I think just the right and left bird might create a "better" image. In my view the middle bird cuts into the right bird too much.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Bob, this one isn't working for me, the birds are all flying away from us and the image is very noisy. For motion blurs I personally like to have at least the head/eye reasonably sharp and clear with a more interesting BG to create a watercolor-like effect

TFS hope you get a better one next time

[Diane Miller]

I think this is really quite interesting, and especially for a salvage job. It might be more appreciated in OOTB. I really like that the three birds all have different lightness. The merge of the middle one would probably be a negative factor for a straight image, but I think you get artistic license here. Same for the noise. I don't know if you did NR but might get away with some as there isn't a lot sharp to worry about blurring. But you don't want to lower the subtle feather detail in the underside of that right wing.

[Bob Smith]

Thank you for all the input here----you've really made me think hard about this image and it's various aspects. Willie, I thought I had an answer to your problem with the overlapping birds in the previous shot. That had the three birds nicely separated but upon pondering I realized why I had rejected it earlier----on the closest (r hand ) of the three the right wing is up so that it looks only 1/2 the full length. Personally I rather like the current positioning anyway as it evokes the weaving pattern of flight of a brant flock. Arash,while I'm sure an incoming shot would have it's merits, it would clash with the ghost theme I have in my mind in that the impression would be one of coming closer and more into th148492e realm of a clearer presence as opposed to a "ghostly disappearance" into the sea mist. I tried to get out what detail I could uncover and the best I could find was the wing detail pointed out by Dianne and, I think, there is visible just the merest glint of a spark in the left eye. As to the background I did play with that, taking the water ripples from clearly there throughout to a totally whited out look ( in which I can definitely see the left eye) . Each view was pleasing to me and so the one I selected was I suppose my "artistic" preference but the two sides of what you see here would, I think, be equally valid artistically and in fact I myself might choose one or the other or the other on any given day. I've attached here the version with ripples to see if this is what you had in mind.