Heavy overcast, late afternoon. Nikon D200, Nikon 200-400mm with 1.4 Tc, focal length 550mm, Ev +1.0, f 5.6, 1/125, iso 200, matrix. PS levels, curves, Selective usm swan, noise reduction background.
YOUNG TUNDRA SWAN - SPRING AT LAST
Heavy overcast, late afternoon. Nikon D200, Nikon 200-400mm with 1.4 Tc, focal length 550mm, Ev +1.0, f 5.6, 1/125, iso 200, matrix. PS levels, curves, Selective usm swan, noise reduction background.
Gary: A nice environmental image. I like the detail on the swan, especially the molting pattern. And the dark head against the lighter grass background is nice. The snow at the level of the head is a bit distracting, though, and tends to draw my eye to it.
I don't think this is a tundra swan. The pattern around the eye (feathers not pinched in around the black from the beak) and the very dramatic V on the forehead. The tundra would have a rounded edge of feathers on the forehead. In isolation, it's hard to identify them from a distance, but you've got some very nice markings which show up here that tend towards the trumpeter.
Linda you are correct. This is a trumpeter. Poor editing on my part. Had a number of tundra images in this batch. Thanks for comments and correction.Originally Posted by Linda Dulak
Gary
Gary, I agree with Linda about the snow being right next to the bird's head. I'd select the bird in PS and then clone over the snow with the field grass (the selection will keep you from accidentally going over onto the bird.) Otherwise...a very nice environmental image and I love that you caught it in molt. I'd also think about bringing up the white just a bit more - a bit of brightness there might be nice but not so much that you lose the way the bird blends with the BG...just enough to pull the snow out of the "gray" tone its in.
I quite like the somewhat singular colour palette. Thanks for sharing.
REPOST YOUNG TRUMPETER SWAN
Corrected title and implemented suggestions. Found getting rid of the backgound snow difficult. Thanks to all for C & C.
Gary
Gary: I like the repost. I think you did a good job of getting rid of the snow and it improved the image. But now I see a bit of a halo around the head. When I look at the OP I also see that the halo was there, probably from the sharpening.
Linda
REREPOST
I restarted from scratch and isolated the swans head, per Julies advise. To my eye, the rerepost looks better with no halo. I'm not totally happy with background. I would welcome any suggestions. I used a combination of clone stamp, patch and healing brush.
Gary
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