Two more Sandhills from Bosque in synch

[Dennis Zaebst]

There was a ditch in Bosque Del Apache between two fields of corn, and dozens of birds were reluctantly "jumping" the ditch after much back and forth and hesitation. It was funny to see them struggle to jump over when all they had to do was fly with those wonderful wings. Finally, two took off from the far left from where I was standing and just flew over. I got a series of images with my 7D. Those are cranes on the ground in the BG.

Canon 7D; ISO 400; 500 mm f/4L IS; 1/1000 sec. @ f/10. PP in LR 4.3, cropped to about 50% of FF. Slightly blurred the BG with the adjustment brush and clarity slider. That's about it for PP. Thought about a pano crop...could be done easily if that would help comp.

C/C welcomed.

[dankearl]

Dennis,
I think this is really nice, I am looking at it on my IPad, which tends to make photos look nicer,
but both birds look good, nice matching pose and a tough shot to get right.
Maybe a bit more all around if you have it.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Dan, I presume you meant more space (i.e. looser crop)? If so, yes, that is not a problem. I added an edit after you replied, that I could easily change to a 16:9 pano crop too. Thanks!

[Don Nelson]

I like this one -- paired wing position and nicely position, even if merging.
I'm seeing some masking or other artifacts around the legs and feet. If it were mine, I'd go back and fix this.

[Roger Clark]

Hi Dennis,

Beautiful symmetry and great light angle. I agree with Don, something funny going on with the legs.

Roger

[Dan Busby]

Nice that you called for a dof that got both birds in good focus Dennis. Very nice symmetry really makes the photo for me. I am a little distracted by the grey blobs of other birds but still a very nice image.

[Nick Palmieri]

Nice capture of these two guys in flight. I like the crop but I think the pano crop would work as well. Wish they completely separated but certainly works as presented.

[arash_hazeghi]

nice wing position and exposure on both. It is tough to get both of these giants inside DOF and while the hind bird looks a bit sharper the sharpness on the front one is still acceptable which is great.

The feet look funny as a result of blurring the BG, this his created a "halo" around the feet also the OOF cranes look a bit unnatural which is also a result of blurring the BG (it has turned them into greyish blobs), you did a good job but overall this image shows why blurring the BG in post generally doesn't work. I don't know how busy the orig BG was but my guess is it is overall a better image.

[Uri First]

beautiful image

[Dennis Zaebst]

You are absolutely correct about the feet and legs, and agree with your analysis Arash, Don, and Roger. I'll go back to the original and start over. I must not have masked the legs and feet accurately. I'll repost when I'm done. Thanks eveyone....I truly appreciate your consideration and help.

[Don Nelson]

Dennis
Here's a quick way to blur that background without the bird diffusing into the blurring:
0) Copy the image to a new duplicate layer. Turn off the base layer's visibility
1) Select the bird - your choice of tools. Save selection (Select->save selection) then Cntl-J to copy onto a new layer. Turn off visibility on the bird layer
2) Working on the duplicate layer made in 0 above:
Select->Load selection with the bird's outline
3) Edit->Clear so the bird now has checkboard. Rest of the picture (Background remains)
results:
4) refine the edge of the selection -- you must have a selection loaded (part 2) and be in a tool for selection, the REFINE EDGE button will be visible above the image. Push it. In Refine image menu, boost the SHIFT EDGE to +100% . You are doing this so the step following does not leave a narrow white(checked) gap
5) Now fill with content aware. EDIT->FILL with contact aware showing in the USE menu that shows up
Nearly perfect fill but a few border issues remain
result: see next posts
6) Go over the border issues between the real image and the content aware filled area with the healing brush (make it small). This fixes any remaining issues
7) Now blur the background however you wish (Gaussian blur suggested).
8) Turn back on the birds on the upper layer
Now you have good blurred background without all the diffusion problems......
Takes just about a minute -- less if you already have the bird selected....

WARNING -- You must selet all parts of the bird before saving selection and cntl-J. Any unselected parts will disappear in later steps, particularly the healing brush step. Note rear toe on the upper bird was not selected and therefore amputated. The joys of working on a tiny jpg ;-)

[Don Nelson]

after step 5: (note that you will have fewer of these issues if you have a cleaner selection!)

note that if you blur this you will get some image bleed from those border problem areas

And I really don't care what is under the bird as long as the edges are good for blurring!

[Don Nelson]

After step 6:

[Don Nelson]

final result

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks Don, I'll give it a whirl and get back to you when I'm done. I sincerely appreciate your taking the time and effort to write that up in so clear a fashion!

[Dennis Zaebst]

Don, I followed your procedure...and I think this is a major improvement. Thanks for this great procedure. I think the better results are due to 1) pasting the selected birds over the blurred BG; and 2) to a more accurate selection. Just curious, why Gaussian blur, and not Lens Blur? I could apply either. One other thing: I had to invert the selection after your step 6 in order to blur the BG instead of the area inside the selection.

What do you (or others) think? Maybe this should be a "sticky" over in the educational resources section? Just a thought.

Thanks again.