White Pelican

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Composite of two images. Selected and copied the pelican to an image of trees, etc. at the shore of a resevioir. Both photos the same reservoir at different times. The background treated with Topaz simplify(one of the paint presets), then pixel bender. The pelican; Topaz detail, color range command used to add colors, then pixel bender. Comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

my website (http://avianimagesource.com)

[Steve Adkins]

Awesome colors, Bill! Super job matching the subject/ lighting/ scale. The PB and effects are stunning!! :S3:

[Kerry Perkins]

Excellent work Bill! Good thinking to use the same location for both images, they match really well. Love the filter applications and especially the background. Very nice.

[Patrick Sparkman]

Awesome combination. Love the colors, and the use of the simplify filter.

[denise ippolito]

Bill, Beautiful filtering and colors. I like the painterly look to this and the composition is lovely.:S3:

[Chris Korman]

Nice work, though I think if the bird's shadow and or reflection were blended into the scene's water, it would be a done deal.

[Brendan Dozier]

Beautiful composition Bill! This is definitely one of my favorites of yours. Great job with composite and filters, your experimentation with different effects and filters is really paying off. Chris' idea of adding a shadow/reflection sounds like a good suggestion. Well done! :cheers:

[pat lillich]

Bill, I love the color and the composition you set up. I like Chris' idea too, would love to see it. Lovely.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Bill, this is a beautiful composite, love the colors and the pelican's pose. Very nicely done!

[WIlliam Maroldo]

I appreciate the comments and suggestions. About the shadow/ reflection idea. I'm glad it was brought up. Sounds good at first, but if you imagine that the image was not a composite but a single photograph, would there be a shadow or reflections visible? Although I didn't mention it both images were taken under overcast conditions, and since the light was very diffuse shadows are either non-existant or very subdued. Adding a shadow would be out of place.
Would there be a reflection? Perhaps if the water was smooth, which it is not. Would the angle of viewing permit a reflection of the bird if the water was smooth? Probably not. However the vegetation would certainly cast a reflection in that case. In this image it is not. So adding a reflection wouldn't be such a good idea either. However, a bit of color from the bird could be reflected off surface ripples, and that may very well be a good idea.
Anyway the trick to convincing composites IMO is consistency. Unless you are dealing with diffuse light, the light must be coming from the same direction so all shadows are going the same directions with all images used. If you don't have shadows in the images in the first place you don't have to worry about it.
regards~Bill

[Chris Korman]

William, I am attaching a gif that shows what I mean in the form of a quick edit:

http://webs.lanset.com/hypoploi/jpeg/1-18BKGpelican1-edit.gif