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Thread: Overhead-The Great Blue Heron

  1. #1
    Lifetime Member Bill Foxworthy's Avatar
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    Default Overhead-The Great Blue Heron

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    Canon 40D, 100-400Lm early morning @ 7:25am
    1/400, f/7.1, ISO400, Partial metering, WB 6500k
    Tweaked in CS3
    I saw this heron comimg from a distance and just had to wait. Wished for a lower perspective but this is what was presented to me.
    I love these graceful big birds!

  2. #2
    Robert O'Toole
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    Light is nice and warm and the image is very sharp. Good job on the exposure also.

    Lightening the shadows areas of the wings would improve the image but be careful so that it doesnt look over done. Maybe lightening the whole image but protecting the highlights would be good also.

    Robert

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    Very nice capture. I love the under wing detail. Thanks for sharing.
    Last edited by Michael Eckstein; 04-25-2008 at 10:07 AM. Reason: can't spell or type properly

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    Lifetime Member Bill Foxworthy's Avatar
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    Thanks Robert and Michael. I believe I already lightened this image using the S/H in PS. Probably cant get it any lighter without ruining it, so will have to leave as-is. :)

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    Philip Lombard
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    Some times they do not give us all. Great capture, love the lighting.

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    Lifetime Member Doug Brown's Avatar
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    Here's my attempt at lightening the dark areas under the wings. I simply create a new layer with blend set to 'Overlay.' I choose the option to fill the layer with 50% gray. To dodge, set the brush color to white. Use an opacity of 15-25%. To burn, set the brush color to black and use the same brush opacity. This works much better than the dodge and burn brushes in PS.

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    Bill, here's a Photoshop tip you can try...

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Foxworthy View Post
    Thanks Robert and Michael. I believe I already lightened this image using the S/H in PS. Probably cant get it any lighter without ruining it, so will have to leave as-is. :)
    Nice image, Bill. I like the pose, but I can see the lighter halo in the blue sky around the bird which usually means a little too agressive use of the shadow/highlight tool.

    But here's a tip you may want to try: Isolate the bird from the background in PS CS2 or CS3 by using [select] [color range] and then clicking on the blue sky. This will select the sky and then you can move the slider as far left as you need so that the entire sky (but not the bird) is selected. When you have the slider where you want it, click [OK]. Next, invert the selection so that only the bird is selected (and not the sky). Now adjust with the shadow/highlight tool, or any other tool of your choosing so that you are making adjustments only to the bird and not the surrounding blue sky.

    Often this will allow you to get the desired results in the bird, without causing those halos.

    I didn't have the benefit of your original image to play with, but I've tried to remove the halo and do what I suggested to the image you posted above.

    Let me know if you find this helpful.

    Best regards and happy shooting!
    Tim

    Last edited by Tim Rucci; 04-27-2008 at 04:51 PM. Reason: Added example photo

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