Brown Pelican

I've seem so many beautiful images submitted to this forum using textures, I decided to give them a try. This brown pelican is an image taken at Little Estero last March. I liked the composition, but the white-sky background ruined the image for me. The use of a texture rescues the image (I think!). This image reflects some minor cleanup, as well as a bit of levels and saturation, some NIK Color Efex Tonal Contrast, and sharpening. No crop. In this case, the use of a texture isn't all that artistic, but I see great potential, and look forward to the use of textures for more artistic purposes in the future. Any advice from those of you with more experience with textures will be appreciated!

Mark II N
500 mm + 1.4x
1/200 @ f/5.6
ISO 400

Mike, the base image was great to start with and I think the texture moved it up a notch! I like the edges and the pose. My only thought is that the feather detail on the wing is not as good as the rest of the bird - maybe that was caused by the texture? You could darken that feather area a little and it wouldn't be so noticeable. Nice work - I hope you share more of your texture images with us soon:S3:

I like the composition, too. A lot. You've got a nice strong primary diagonal, and the pelican's right eye is proportionally right where it should left to right. You did a great job in choosing the texture. It's color and look are just right. I hope we get to see more.

Cheryl, thanks for your feedback -- much appreciated! The feather detail is weak at one spot. It looks the same on the original RAW capture. Perhaps it had something to do with the light angle?

Love the base image with the wonderful pose and great colors. The texture works well with the image and I really like it and the edge is cool.

Great base image complimented by the texture...nice one.

Base image and textures quite good. Funny thing about images with white backgrounds, which I would surmise many others think "ruins" an image. Personally, I often go out of my way for this result. Then again I do quite a bit of OOTB imagery, and I consider white backgrounds to be advantageous. It completely eliminates any background distractions and forces the viewer to concentrate on the subject, it adds a distinctively graphic look to an image , and allows very easy selection of subjects for any number of OOTB treatments, including replacing the white background with anything you like. Just my 2 cents of course. regards~Bill

Wonderful portrait of a Pelican! Love the close up view, the composition, the colors, the textures. I think the feathers of the wing are OK. I tried darkening them a bit, and I liked it that way also. Your choice of texture is excellent and complements the image. Good job!
My advice on textures is: experiment! Experiment with different textures, different blending modes, and different opacities. Most of all, have fun!