This is about the end of the sequence I captured of the 'Skipping Pelican", which I had posted a few days back. It was in fact chasing a rather sizable fish, possible an Australian Bass or a Carp. It was successful too. I added canvas just above the tip of the left wing, which while it was fully in the frame, was too close for me. I then added the BG with quick masks and used the heal tool to blend, then selected the area above the straight line of grass and applied a gaussian blur. I think I accidentally left a bit of blur on some of the wing bits. :(
30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x, ISO400, -2/3 comp, f/6.3, 1/2500th, cropped vertical (full height) from horizontal. I kind of like the eye that it is visible through the wash. Any comment or critique most welcome. :)
Yes, being able to see the eye is very important here. If the pelican's head was just a bit higher out of the water the yellow from the base of the bill that would have shown up would have been great. Looks like it may need a degree or two of CCW rotation. Excellent action you've captured, good call in adding canvas above. I love the extreme low angle perspective!
Great action here! Lovely wing position, good BG, it is GREAT that one can see the bird's eye.
I would've sharpened the whole image more and not just the water and eye, and I would also try a more tidy blur on the BG as the bird's right wing has an Halo in the elbow tyhat coudl be because of the blur, please do correct me if I am wrong.
Congratulaitons on a wonderfull shot Akos!
Hi guys, thanks for the supportive comments. Ramón, you are most likely correct about the halo mate. I think it is a remnant of the erasing (lack of) from the blurring of the bg.
Daniel, thanks for the tilt tip. I thought I did enough already. COuld not agree with myself on the amount of rotation to apply. I will play with the suggested settings.
Great action captured and extreme low angle of shot !! You managed to handle the exposure very well here, considering the very bright subject on a dark BG.
Personally, I would have loved to see the image in a horizontal frame (the water in the FG is a bit too much for me).