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585F65

Soaring iv

Posted by Adiemus (Christchurch, New Zealand) on 13 February 2007 in Animal & Insect and Portfolio.

Playing with postprocessing.

If I can remember the processing I did ...
I adjusted levels and curves, taking care not to over do the lightness on the wings.
then I made a new layer and masked out the bird (quite difficult I must say!!), and did a bit of fiddling with the sky, basically darkening it a bit.
Then I reversed the mask, and did a wee bit of dodging and burning on the wings to make sure the detail came out.
Flattened the whole lot, then unsharpened, and bob's your uncle!
Oh, and I was incredibly lucky to catch him with no blur!!
I promise I won't say how many shots I took of the birds either... All I can say is that I'm glad I have a 2G card!!

Hi guys!
This year I'll be putting up fewer shots, but hopefully improving the quality at the same time. Sort of a 'best of' if you like.
This community is terrific in so many ways - I love it even if I don't often comment. The people on here make it a great place to be.
I'm also writing a health-related blog - if you're interested, hop on over to http://healthskills.wordpress.com/
and make yourself known!

Listed on Photoblogs.org

Comments (32)

Prashanth from Bengalooru, India

nice capture!

13 Feb 2007 1:53am

Dimitrios from ATHENS, Greece

superb...........fly away........fly.............

13 Feb 2007 2:53am

Manuela Photography from Hainburg (near Frankfurt/Main), Germany

Wow... I am speechless!

13 Feb 2007 4:04am

Addey Kehinde from London, United Kingdom

Wow, what an excellent capture. I've been trying something like this for ages...nothing! This is beautiful. Depicts a graceful flight.

13 Feb 2007 4:18am

@Addey Kehinde: I think it was a good combination of luck, and lots of fish guts and a willing (?) partner on the boat who was baiting the crayfish pots! Oh, and heaps and heaps and heaps of photos that didn't work out!!!!

Behrooz from Tehran, Iran

And again something special. I love these series.

13 Feb 2007 4:35am

Maoya from Rolle, Switzerland

Hi Bronnie, This take is just breathtaking! Great job with the cropping and making the background look so sober!
P.s Appreciating your stopping by and always having something nice to say :)

13 Feb 2007 4:38am

@Maoya: Thanks so much, I was lucky it was a fairly overcast day, but it was quite bright, so I was a bit worried about overexposure, but this time it worked!!

Herve from Paris, France

Very good capture. It is very lt to focus on such birds, except when they are flying against the wind ! :)

13 Feb 2007 5:00am

Herve from Paris, France

The "It" word means difficult ! Sorry, my brain was not well connected to my keyboard ! :p

13 Feb 2007 5:01am

@Herve: I know that feeling, had one of those last night, all thumbs on the keyboard....!

Jerry from Tampa, United States

Wonderful capture! Grand image!

13 Feb 2007 5:24am

Myst from Bologna, Italy

Superb! Amazing! Well done!

13 Feb 2007 6:24am

Pero from Kyoto, Japan

Great capture. Man, that's Beautiful and breathtaking.

13 Feb 2007 7:23am

Craiger from Vacaville, California, United States

You have a knack for catching these guys in flight! Good job!

13 Feb 2007 7:27am

M.E. from Encino, United States

excellent capture!

13 Feb 2007 7:43am

Stu from Kyoto, Japan

A superb capture Bronnie. Very well done! I can see the pupil in it's eye the detail is so sharp.

13 Feb 2007 8:18am

@Stu: Thanks Stu! I was especially pleased at getting the detail on its wings, it's so easy to overexpose - but this one worked!

Still from Valence, France

Awesome fly!

13 Feb 2007 8:37am

Abdullah from Esfahan, Iran

You have wonderful images here...Nice shot and well done ;)

13 Feb 2007 11:05am

Francis from Hong Kong

beautiful capture and great use of space

13 Feb 2007 11:17am

Shuva from Hyderabad, India

I am liking your bird series.

13 Feb 2007 11:24am

objectif-plume from Belgium

je salue! c'est si beau

13 Feb 2007 11:24am

Duncan Galbraith from kyoto, Japan

wonderful shot Bronnie. a fine specimen, well portrayed.

13 Feb 2007 12:09pm

@Duncan Galbraith: You are very kind. Thank goodness for telephoto hey?!

Prem from Mumbai, India

Luckily u got it on the top frame which reinforces the rule of 3. Let us know abt the post processing involved. I have a very similar picture in my lot with small differences. will put that tomorrow for ur reference which u will chk it & shed some light on post processing ;)

13 Feb 2007 1:21pm

Still from Valence, France

Nice capture and post processing!

13 Feb 2007 3:42pm

@Still: Thank you so much - compliments especially from someone like you makes me feel really special!

Yvon from Meerkerk, Netherlands

I love your series. This was especially! Love your post processing.

13 Feb 2007 5:00pm

@Yvon: Wow! Thanks for your comment about pp, I'm very very new at all of this (since the week before Christmas actually!), and very self taught - apart from being able to google randomly!

jennifer radio from United States

This is beautiful.

13 Feb 2007 5:08pm

badala from Leiria, Portugal

I love this picture!!! Another postcard!

13 Feb 2007 5:09pm

Colour blind from Tokyo, Japan

You've done so well to get this!!! The composition is spot on. I like how the direction of the seagulls eyes are looking in the direction that leads us to the empty space of your picture. Scope and processing are all top notch.

13 Feb 2007 7:01pm

@Colour blind: I didn't even notice that until you mentioned it! Thank you so much!