pjduncan

I have altered the background using photoshop. Please let me know if

there is anything that seems distracting or displeasing. I'm just

getting the hang of photoshop and doing all the feathering/blending in

a realistic way is still a bit tricky for me.

I like the idea, and the lighting, colors, sharpness are superb. The one suggestion I have is doing something different with the centering of the container... such as cropping one side or having it off center.

All comments and suggestions appreciated. I have one other Jelly in

my portfolio. Please visit there as well. Thanks.

OK... here is one more modification. I found the fact that too much of the background ran in parallel with the bird seemed unpleasing to me. Hence this latest change... also a bit more darkening of highlights in the background.

 

So... I'd certainly appreciate anyone that would care to leave comments and say which of these several versions you like best and why.

 

Many thanks to everyone for taking the time to stop by.

Birte, here is the original image from the camera. It was with default setting on my Canon D Rebel which means slighty sharp and slighty extra saturation. I'm pretty sure I didn't do any extra saturation in photoshop but perhaps got that effect just tweaking "levels" a bit. The shot was also taken very late in the day, so I don't know if the natural light might also have something to do with the resulting colors. I've tried lightening the bird as you suggested but so far the results just seem washed out, not more realistic. I do see the difference between this and your shots... just not sure whether it's original light, camera settings or photoshop adjustments... or all of the above.

 

Also... Birte, you have some absolutely stunning photos. I'm a conservationist at heart and send my sincere thanks for the work you are doing. Hopefully, through combined efforts such as your own, young photographers generations from now might still have the opportunity to shoot lovely photos such as yours out in nature

 

Thanks to you and all who have given me helpful suggestions over the years... Happy New Years!

Thanks for the suggestions. I had already darkened the background somewhat, but agree that the sticks still draw one's attention too much. I've done a second version, not removing them, but darkening and blurring more (which I've now loaded as the main image). Too me it would seem too processed or as if posed in a studio if I had a totally black background. The image with this comment is what was posted when Birte contributed the comment.

All suggestions for improvement greatly appreciated. Also, please

check out my other Lorikeet shot and let me know which you like best.

Thanks for viewing.

Superb! I'd love to know details of shooting... lighting arrangement, etc. Do you do the backgrounds using photoshop or is that part of the shooting? I love dogwood trees and I love this shot. Thanks so much for sharing it.

Great shot! I think I would have liked the flower moved just a touch to the right in the frame... it seems too close to left edge.

Absolutely stunning! The light, the fine details, the black background... I love it.

Nice shot!

I like this one a lot. Very pleasing with the wider framing, in my opinion. DOF works very well.

Very nice! The background colors work well to offset the crab and the DOF seems just right.

Very nice shot. I think I like the wider view as shown.

Has an interesting feel to it. I'm curious, is it film or digital?

Very nice! I like the look of this a lot. Do you have a description somewhere of what your processing steps are to get this look.

You do really, really nice panaramic shots. Am I correct from the details section that you shot three different images each with 5 exposure settings? Do you meter in the mid tone region and then set the camera to manual for all the shots or do you use autoexposure for each camera angle? Is this tone mapped from HDR? All of this is totally new to me and you get such beautiful results.

Very nice composition and very pleasing tonal range.

Very nice shot! I like the composition and the background is superb in texture and color. If you get a chance, please check out some of the flora stuff in my portfolio. I'd love to hear your opinion and any suggestions for improvement. Thanks for sharing such a beautiful photo.

Very Nice! I would not have thought that such harsh underlighting would result in such a flattering photo.

I like the captured moment. The cropping/framing is a bit problematic, though perhaps there would have been nothing else to do. I would have maybe given a bit more room on the right. Also... the feet at the top are a bit distracting. Perhaps you can just clone those out with photoshop.

This is a newly cropped and color adjusted version of a previous post.

Hopefully it has corrected some of the flaws pointed out in the

previous version. For those curious about the original, it can be

found in my portfolio. Still looking for suggestions for further

improvement... or let me know if you happen to like the other version

better. Thanks for viewing.

I'm really not much of a bird spotter, but the friend I was with

seemed rather excited to see a Cedar Waxwing. This was taken on

Catalina Island in March of 05. I'm not overly pleased with the

picture as it was from a bit of a distance with a low quality

telephoto lens and has also been cropped.

I've done some shots of the Disney Hall... it can be tricky. This is a really good shot... simple but captivating. I agree with the crop on the bottom, but I'd have to say I like your original right edge.

Great shot! Perfect composition... great DOF choice. I might like a little more color saturation especially in the water... but then again maybe not.