Morning fly by.

[Tom Rambaut]

Another one from Bosque in November 2012. I have done very little image taking since returning home.

Some canvas added to top and originally cropped to hide a distinct far shore line that ran along the top of the original capture.

1D MK4, 500mm, 1/2000 @ 5.6, ISO 400. Manual mode. Tripod.

[Arthur Morris]

Gumbo Tom, Great to see you posting. Love this one, especially the upturned primaries and the drops of water above the toes. It needs only a bit of Eye Doctor work. Be right back.

[Arthur Morris]

Took a bit more work than I thought as there were not many pixels to work with. Created a QM of the rear half of the eye and flopped it to create a clearer front half. Added a regular layer mask to get rid of the grey feathers.... Did a lot of work on the pupil. Then NIK CEP Tonal Contrast on the face, head, and bill along with a 15-65 Contrast Mask then lightened that layer.... Whew! All as described in Digital Basics. It was great meeting you at Bosque.

[Karl Egressy]

Beautiful flight image that brings back great memories. Love the pose, shooting angle and background. The repost by Artie is a nice improvement.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely image, Tom. The BG is gorgeous as are the upturned wings. The water drops bring it up another notch. I am good with either eye but personally feel the original looks more natural.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Tom, I think this is a great shot. Well done. Can't complain about anything. Great BG, sharp, and great light. Well done!

[vishaljadhav]

Lovely image Tom, i love the color tones here, very nicely captured flight .

Arthur Bhai has taken it up quite a few notches by getting the head and eye more focused , great one Bhai.

[Arthur Morris]

Lovely image, Tom. The BG is gorgeous as are the upturned wings. The water drops bring it up another notch. I am good with either eye but personally feel the original looks more natural.

Hi Marina, I am betting that had you not seen the original post that you would have felt that the reconstucted eye looked perfectly natural :) I have proven time after time that folks are great at detecting Photoshop changes when you tell them in advance what you did. But when I post an image without revealing anything folks are left to guessing and inventing stuff . No way to prove that of course; I am just relaying my experiences here and on the blog.

[Frank Schauf]

Great light and flight pose.

[Marina Scarr]

Hi Marina, I am betting that had you not seen the original post that you would have felt that the reconstructed eye looked perfectly natural :)

Agree that I probably wouldn't have noticed the repair and was not presuming that I would. That said, had I reviewed the image closely enough, I may have wondered why I didn't see a catch light in the RP.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Wonderful pose with the curled up primaries, Tom. I love the droplets flying upwards from the feet and the neat bg color. Flight angle is just right too.
Like Marina, between the two, I too find the OP more natural.

[Tom Rambaut]

Took a bit more work than I thought as there were not many pixels to work with. Created a QM of the rear half of the eye and flopped it to create a clearer front half. Added a regular layer mask to get rid of the grey feathers.... Did a lot of work on the pupil. Then NIK CEP Tonal Contrast on the face, head, and bill along with a 15-65 Contrast Mask then lightened that layer.... Whew! All as described in Digital Basics. It was great meeting you at Bosque.

Amazing place Arthur - trying to work out how to get back there soon.


Thanks all for stopping by.

[Cheryl Arena Molennor]

I love the pose with the upturned feathers. Nice bg too. I actually prefer the repost since my initial suggestion would have been to add a little more contrast to face area and the eye looks more visible now as well.

[Arthur Morris]

Agree that I probably wouldn't have noticed the repair and was not presuming that I would. That said, had I reviewed the image closely enough, I may have wondered why I didn't see a catch light in the RP.

Valid point. The eye was a mess in the OP :).