Wilson's Plover Beach Pano--Which is Better?

[Arthur Morris]

The image is this pane is a three frame HORZ stitched pano created at Little Estero Lagoon on 14 March with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens and the EOS-1D Mark III. ISO 400. Eavluative metering +1 1/3 stops: 1/320 sec. at f/10.

I like the pronounced pano look in this image but am unsure about the o-o-f foreground plant on the right.

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created by cropping the original post. Now the subject is close to being centered..... Which one do you like better and why?

[Rene Quenneville]

Beautiful image, nice light and DOF. I prefer the pano, I like the repetition of the green to the right. I would remove the red plants and the green part touching the bill, they are a little distracting. I am always amazed by the sharpness of your pictures.

[Harold Davis]

i like the first one. bird looks too centered in the second one. first one is more balanced.

[Robert Amoruso]

Artie,

I like the second one better. Even though the bird may be center, the green plant behind him is attractive and you framed that to the rear so as not to clip it. The red plant material (looks like seagrape) on the right balances the plover's centralization in the image. Agree with Rene on removing the part touching the bill.

In the first one, the OOF plant on the right bothers me. If I wanted to make that pano, I would focus on the bird and make an image, pan right and make an image of the plant OOF as you did and then focus on the right plant and make that image. I would then quick mask the in focus plant, copy and paste to the stitched image and dropped it in as a new layer, erase what was not needed and pano done. If done like this, the red plant material is redundant as the plant on the right balances the bird.

[Arthur Morris]

Good plan Robert but what would you go about differences in sharpness of the sand????

[Arthur Morris]

Jeez, I never even noticed the lead intersecting the bill. Since #2 is the fave, I have removed the offending leaf with the protect and defend cloning and some Patch Tol work. Thanks all for their comments.

BTW, I love the red stuff.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Artie,
Late to the party...I will give an OP on all.........1st post is nice....except for the OOF right grass.....as Robert mentioned....a bit out of place with the rest. @nd post is the preference....and the final re-post takes care of any issues one might have. I like the reddish grass on the right....it doesn't overpower the image.....just balances nicely. Now....I will give you another option to ponder....in the original post......totally remove the grass on the right.....just sand....compositionally 1/3 plover....1/3 reddish sea grape....1/3 sand. Works for me too...albeit....I would like to see it in larger size. Just food for thought. As presented....final re-post is the way to go.

[Robert Amoruso]

Good plan Robert but what would you go about differences in sharpness of the sand????

Artie

I mentioned three images. Two for the pano that you made and one with the right plant in focus. Then you would take the image of the in focus plant, quick mask out that plant, drop it into the pano and either erase or mask out that in focus sand so all that remained was the plant. I think with careful work it could be made to look natural.

[Arthur Morris]

Ah, thanks for the explanation. It would, however, be quite a lot of work.

[Robert Amoruso]

Ah, thanks for the explanation. It would, however, be quite a lot of work.

Agreed, would be a lot of work.

I knew you would like the little red stuff too. :)

[David Thomasson]

I'm partial to #2, except for the centering. How would this variation on 2 work?:

[Tom Dolezal]

Do prefer the pano look of the 1st but, for me, there are too many clumps of detail with the RH foliage being a big distraction. Roman's suggestion of removing that RH foliage is good but I feel a slight trim on the RH margin would also be needed.

[Arthur Morris]

David, the repost is not only quite nice but the Photoshop work was extremely well done. I had to look at it several times.... Thank you sir.

[Paul Marcellini]

If everything was in focus, I would go with the original, but after all the versions, David's takes the cake. And yes, the cloning was very well done. Ohh, and great shot btw.