This guy was chasing other males away from his small harem and it was the first time I was able to get close enough to a male Bufflehead to see that the head has irridescent colors...I thought it was just black and white. I wish I had more canvas for him to swim into but this is pretty much full frame---I did add just a little and I left the splashes on the right because I think they're neat. Any suggestions? C&C encouraged and appreciated.
Canon 40D; f56, 1/3200; Eval and manual; ISO 640; 100-400 @400
Wow! That's one tough subject to photograph; exposure nightmare and faster than a speeding bullet. I'd say you nailed this one Katie! I would move the bird to the right, remove a little canvas at the bottom, and add some up top. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, you can always bring the RAW file to Costa Rica and I'll work on it with you there! :)
Hi Katie - exposure is spot on - action is great especially all those water drops. Agree with doug on the more space in front, some off the bottom and some more on top.
Love the action. Looks as if you used a Qm to add canvas left but did not quite align the layer perfectly... Plus, there is a thin light line where the mask meets the ORIG canvas. Tips:
1: use the arrow keys to move the mask one pixel at a time for perfect alignment
2: move the orig QM less than you did (to ensure full coverage) and then hit control J to make a second mask and then move that to the left. Repeat until the work is done.
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Hi Katie I like the idea of more canvas to the front but would not take any from the back, I like the bird placed as is to show since I like whats going on behind !!
Adding canvas up front will not be an easy task because of the irregular water but an image worth spending time on !!! Big Congrats !!1
Here's an example of adding canvas using Content Aware Scale in CS4. Probably should have cropped off th 1/4" or so that Artie mentioned (My what sharp eyes he has :) ) His move tips are great too . . Tried a bit to minimize very slight line he mentioned. However, the idea is here.
Very nice Katie,
I like the action captured here with the splashing water and the circles in the water. Agree with Doug on the canvas issue, but I would crop this into a pano to focus more on what is going on...good show...I like it...:cool:
This is the other image of the Bufflehead taken just before the original post; it has more canvas but less forward action. Converted, levels, a bit of sharpening and curves, no cropping.
Thank you all for your helpful comments and Gus for your added canvas technique.
Think I like the orig. Katie although they are both VG. Agree with Doug with more canvas on top and maybe a bit more on the left. Didn't notice the PS work if you did do a QM. Think the second has a bit of a colour cast. Anyways VWD Katie. Are you going to CR?? If so, it is a beautiful country.
Male Bufflehead
