These are some of the hardiest of birds. How they scratch out enough food in deep snow is beyond me. Yesterday was a beautiful cold, sunny day and I finally managed to get out with my camera. This Jake? was out in a field in about 10 inches of snow, he had obviously found something to eat and had been working this area hard.
Topaz Clean 3 effect
CS5 - Select - Color Range - gray ugly snow was masked, selected light blue color and used Gradient Fill on selected mask, resulting in blue gradient in the snow. Added slightly darker blue border to match.
Thanks for looking
02-09-2011, 07:19 PM
Dan Brown
Nice work Paul! The blues make this really look cold! Topaz 3 and CS5! Man, I'm behind the times!:2
02-09-2011, 08:22 PM
Kerry Perkins
Good clean fun Paul! I like the look you got with one of my faves. I think the blue really makes this image nice to look at. Does look cold!
Dan, one of the cool things about Topaz Labs is that they give you free updates on their plugins. Another cool thing is that they do a lot of updates and they are all good. :c3:
02-09-2011, 09:06 PM
Brendan Dozier
Nice composition Paul! Like your use of Topaz and the gradient fill worked well on this - good idea. Also like the random highlights of snow in BG to give some depth. Well done!
02-09-2011, 10:07 PM
Judy Howle
Great use of the filter and the blue tones are just right for the image. Nice work!
02-10-2011, 08:31 AM
Richard Lovison
Paul,
Nicely done. With the effect you actually made the bird appear even hardier as it looks like he is in protective armor. Beautiful colors and composition.
Richard
02-10-2011, 02:15 PM
denise ippolito
Paul, You did a great job with the Clean filter. I love the composition and the way the snow and grass foreground rendered.
02-10-2011, 10:41 PM
Steve Adkins
Great capture and wonderfully done effect. It's amazing what they have to endure. TFS :S3:
02-11-2011, 09:48 AM
Andrew McLachlan
Hi Paul, very nicely done, love the clean effect. You did well getting close to this one, I find them very hard to approach over here.
02-12-2011, 08:54 PM
Cheryl Slechta
Paul, a great image:S3: I like the color and the Topaz effect on the grasses peeking out of the snow.
Nice job.