Unrealistic

[Desmond Chan]

200-400 + D700 on monopod. ISO 640 f5.6 1/640s.

78440


Taken earlier this year. Took it out and played with it a bit.

Slight crop + glamor glow +/- contrast.


Thank you for looking !!

[Lance Peters]

Hi Desmond - Like it :) Some nice fine feather detail in this.... BG Colours compliment the bird well. I would be tempted to crop a little from the top if it were mine - would have the added benefit of moving the eye out of the centre of the frame.
Cool :)

[Julie Kenward]

Nice work, Desmond! You added the perfect amount of blur to leave the details of the feathers but still get a change in the atmosphere around it. Love that bright red on the head against the yellow of his eye...he sure looks deep in thought! I, too, would crop some from the top for the reasons Lance gave.

[Desmond Chan]

Thank you, Julie and Lance !!

As for to crop the top or not, actually, I wish I could position the crane nearer to the lower right hand side of the photo and result in more negative space in the final image.

[Arthur Morris]

Yeah, a crop from the top and the left would tighten this up and improve the COMP. I love the dreamy look and so would the folks in the OOTBox forum.... The area in front of the eye could stand to be lightened a bit.

[John Chardine]

I like the effect very much too. Agree with comments on crop, and the lightening of the bit between the eye and the start of the bill, which is called the lores.

Desmond- where does "glamour glow" come from? For those who don't have it you can get a very similar effect by moving the Clarity slider in ACR CS5 to the left. This reduces mid-tone contrast and produces this dreamy look which is often very effective, particularly for people images.

[John Chardine]

Thank you, Julie and Lance !!

As for to crop the top or not, actually, I wish I could position the crane nearer to the lower right hand side of the photo and result in more negative space in the final image.

I'm interested to know why you would want to do this Desmond. Can you add some canvas, clone the BG and give an idea of what you are thinking about here?

[Bob Miller]

Hi Desmond.....i too agree with cropping suggestions above....really love the feather detail and the red head. Curious as to why you would want to add negative space.

[Desmond Chan]

Desmond- where does "glamour glow" come from?

Nik's Color Efex Pro.

You certainly can create the effect simply using whatever Photoshop has. Plug-ins, the way I see it, just make things easy.

[Desmond Chan]

John, Bob, the reason I wanted to have more negative space is because what I had in mind was an environmental portrait. If I wanted it to be a simple portrait, I would have cropped the top myself already. :)

Something like this:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?61162-Sleeping-Beauty&highlight=


Took on the same day, may even be the same crane (there was about 4 of them together that day).


Guess something's missing to make it what I wanted it to be :o


Thank you everyone !!