Might as well jump on the bandwagon with Artie, Akos, and Doug. It is a good idea. So, is it real or is it altered? A male Purple Finch above a water drip in my backyard on an overcast day.
50D, 100-400 at 330mm
1/250, F/6.3, ISO 640
Tripod, Blind
Real or Altered: Purple Finch
Might as well jump on the bandwagon with Artie, Akos, and Doug. It is a good idea. So, is it real or is it altered? A male Purple Finch above a water drip in my backyard on an overcast day.
50D, 100-400 at 330mm
1/250, F/6.3, ISO 640
Tripod, Blind
Last edited by Aidan Briggs; 01-25-2010 at 05:51 PM.
Whatever you did looks pretty good to me, lovely BG, pose and head angle.
I agree with Fabs - it looks very natural, Aiden. Very nice pose, sharpness, and background. I think the image would be even stronger with more DOF to sharpen up the breast and legs. Well done.
I like the soft light, eye contact and perch. I wish we could see the tail a bit better and I might make it a tad darker. There is no obvious alteration other than the head being sharper than the rest of the bird.
Thanks for the comments Fabs, Steve, and Axel. Nothing was done to the head, but....
Anyone can feel free to take the image into PS to look for evidence :)
Last edited by Aidan Briggs; 01-25-2010 at 08:05 PM.
Copy cat. Nice pic. It is good to see that you are putting Alan Murphy's guide to good use. I am not a fan of microscopic exams. If you forced me to take a guess I would say that you might have removed something from behind the bird. IAC, you did a good job.
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Thanks, Artie :D That guide is priceless. I'll post the original in a little bit.
I really enjoyed Alan's cd as well, can't wait to put some of the tricks to use like you have Aiden.
Pretty sweet shot, especially for an overcast day.
I'm seeing some pixilation right around where the beak meets the face, could there have been a branch in front?
So far everyone has been looking in the wrong places....;)
to my eye, this looks very natural. Lovely soft colors and light and a sweet pose, pleasing bg. The head does appear to be overly sharp compared to the rest of the finch, but not enough to detract much, if at all. Am curious to know what's been 'changed' :)
Thanks Cindy. You shall find out tomorrow. Then again, it may not be altered at all :)
Hi Aidan, I like the pose, and soft colour of the finch. With your F/6.3, the chest should have been as sharp as the head ( so maybe something there ) but Im going with the leaf in front of him - you added it in.
Not sure that the bird itself has been altered Aiden, but it appears there has been some cloning in the LLC, possibly to remove a branch or something distracting?
Stuart is heading in the right direction...
Here is the original. As you can see, there was a big ugly scar the lower right area of the perch. So after I was done I picked a couple of the leaves from the same perch, and used double-sided tape to hold them in front of the scarred area. I took a couple of images of the perch with the leaves taped on, then copied the leaves onto the original. I also did a bit of patch work on the right to get rid of some leaves that were already there.
Nicely done, Aiden.Originally Posted by Aidan Briggs
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