I don't know if this can be saved. I caught these two when the sun was on the way up and quite by surprise (to me, not them). I know they were being territorial with one chasing the other away but they looked like they were engaged in a ballet danced to the music of the dawn. Anyway, here they are, all suggestions gratefully accepted. captured with the 40D, 500 f4 + 1.4 Iso 400 AV 7.0, 1/1000
I really like the mood of the light and shadows of this....if it weren't for the white horizontal(surf?) line going through the heads it would be outstanding to me.
Carole, You caught a beautiful moment! I like the action. I really agree with your characterization of it as ballet-like. You also do a great job working at that magnification (looks sharp to me), and I notice you have captured them from a low point of view.
I agree with Bill that the white horizontal line is distracting, and I would attempt to remove it if it were mine. It may be tough to remove that bright white spot between their heads, but I believe it could be done. I don't know how experienced you are with PS, but I think this would be worth attempting, if only to improve your skills. Also, the work done on the LLC is a little too obvious for my tastes. Perhaps a little Shadow/Highlight adjustment would help as well with the highlights and shadows.
This is a great moment. I agree with others that it's worth working on, and that the horizontal line is the big distraction. I don't know about the bright spot between the heads, but it's not as big an issue as the line for me.
Carole, What a great catch. As mentioned, the white line seems a bit distracting, but I'm sure the talented people here would have a solution for this.
I hope you don't mind that I had a go at modifying your image. I removed the water (Clone and Patch), cleaned up the foreground, slightly improved the left bird's head feathers with the right bird's feathers, opened up the shadows a little, did a Select-Color Range-Layer Copy-Multiply-30% to tone down the very brightest feathers, made a little crop, used Color Balance to remove a little red, and a very small additional USM. Whew... I hope you don't think I got too carried away. It just reaffirms my idea that this is worth some work, if only to keep PP skills up to speed. I expect that others may consider the side-lighting problematic; so it goes...
Hi carole - like the action - The side lighting is going to be one of the issues here - not always possible to line it up behind you - but sure gets best results.
Like Rons repost as far as removing the water etc in the BG - certainly improves as it removes that distraction and puts more focus were you want it to be, BUT has also noticeably increased the blue colour cast on the left hand side of the birds (Shadows) This area now has a strong blue cast.
Just needs to be selectively adjusted in those area's.
Might wish for a bit more sepration between the birds - if they stayed for a while - make sure you work them well - moving if possible to try and get a better angle and light angle as well.
I like the idea of cleaning up the bg and Ron's re post looks great, I'm on a laptop so can't tell much about a cast.
Trying to convert this image to look like one taking with frontal lighting and no shadows is just not possible !!! Do like the mood and it one I wouldn't mind having myself !!!
Thank you all for your help and comments. Ron certainly did work magic and I am going to attempt to do the same though I am affraid my PS skills are not nearly up to it.
Beautiful shot Carole, might add a little canvas to the left and work maybe on the S/H. More of a crop to pano.
Too tired to work on it at the moment, but I hope to post something on the w/e. It is a very poetic.
Carole
Stunner indeed. A little more careful cloning of the LHS would be in order to optimize to its full beauty, or Ron's crop is also fab!
WOW!
You lucky lady capturing this!
I have NEVER seen this behavior in Australia yet. :(
sunrise ballet
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