The Handoff

[Harold Davis]

The male bringing back nesting material on sunday afternoon at wakodahatchee wetlands in boynton beach.

i have delayed posting this because i wanted to be able to learn how to fix it myself. but instead i now submit to the experts here at BPN. two things: first of all, is the composition even worth messing with? and secondly, how do i fix that background? the out of focus kris-crossing objects are a distraction that i tried to gaussian blur, but with the high rate of blur, it did not look natural.

D300, 600mmVR(thanks Al!!), f/6.3, 1/400s, ISO 800.

i think it's full frame if i remember correctly. set b&w control points, selectively sharpened the birds, then selectively sharpened the female's eye. ran noise reduction everywhere else but the birds.

thanks for looking and comments and critiques are appreciated.

[denise ippolito]

Harold, I love it, The BG colors are awesome! I would mask the leaves,stick and birdbeak so you don't hit into them and then use either the blur tool at 25% or the smudge tool at low # then finish w/ the healing brush or some combination of above-or even the clone tool at low opacity it shouldn't be too hard-worth fixing! Now I'm jealous!!! Minor fix-Sorry I didn't mean to imply it needed fixing I was just responding to your comments-

[Alfred Forns]

I like the pose and framing Also think the bg is just fine You could smooth it out a bit but no mayor changes. If you make a layer and use Gaussian blur don't over do it, just a light pass and keep it looking natural !!!

This is a great example of managing clutter without having to go clone crazy. Going tighter eliminates most of the surrounding twigs which are normally present around a nest !!! I like it a lot !!!

[Dave Mills]

Harold, I agree with Alfred's comments...I happen to like the angle this was taken. You rarely see other than a side view of this activity.

[Nonda Surratt]

I second what Alfred said..Really like this one

[Dave Leroy]

Definitely very nice Harold. Lovely action shot and worth a bit of extra time. Very nice colours in bg. Dave

[Lance Peters]

Hi Mr H - I like it just the way it is - could blur the Bg a tad - but no biggie. Love teh interaction.
Nice :)

[Arthur Morris]

A quickie BKGR fix with the Patch Tool and Divide and Conquer as detailed in Digital Basics. Also selectively sharpened the face of the left-hand bird.

I like the image and the look on the face of the female is priceless. Way to go.

Ooops. Forgot to upload the repost. Yikes! See below.

[Gus Cobos]

Doctor Davis,
I like it as presented...this is a very nice capture...the photo tells the story...:cool:

[Gus Hallgren]

Hi Harold:

Great capture . . . To answer your question about white bar, this is what I would do.

Uncle Gus

[Katie Rupp]

I agree with Dave Mills, the point of view here really makes your image special, Harold. I love the bg color and I think this is contest material.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great one H. Love the interaction between birds.

[Harold Davis]

that's nice, gus! thanks for the repost.

and thanks to everyone else for your replies!!!!!!

[Arthur Morris]

A quickie BKGR fix with the Patch Tool and Divide and Conquer as detailed in Digital Basics. Also selectively sharpened the face of the left-hand bird.

I like the image and the look on the face of the female is priceless. Way to go.

[Harold Davis]

holey smokes that looks good artie!! thanks for the repost!!

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks Harold. I agree And it is all in Digital Basics!