Night Heron:the ending, first
This is the last shot I took in a series of Night Heron shots, some of which I will post "later". I was going to clone out all those branches, or enough to make the bird stand out. Instead, this idea of dealing with the branches grew. Do you like any of them? If so, which one? They are all the same shot. I was so close to that bird I was backing up. To back up more, I would have been in the swamp on the "other" side.
There were three Night Herons right in that area, one was a juvenile, a scruffy looking thing, and I will show you that photo, later, but two of the birds flew off, and this bird stayed. I think that he was the "decoy" to keep us (another photographer came up, and I showed her) from "going after" the youngster, which we couldn't have anyway. The other woman thought this guy was fishing. I don't think so. It was late, he didn't look like he was fishing. And, in the summer, fishing or not, they fly off.
I have way too many shots of this guy, but it was getting dark, and I could afford to run out my memory. I was trying to get a photo with some light in it, on the bird, with fewer branches. Most of the time the EV was +1 1/3, an onheard of amt for me, and it was working.
The other woman was sometimes using her on camera (20D flash). She talked me into doing it. This is one where it fired. Also, I had it on f 16, because I had been trying to shoot the other two birds together.
And I forgot, smile.
Exif:
f 16, 800 ISO, 200mm, 1/100, EV 0, AV, Flash fired.
After all is said and done, it is the sweet tea.
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ginger
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Yeah, I feathered it "25", just can't get it to blend enough. I am pretty much through with it for the time being. Worked on it til 4 AM, may have already said that.
But yes, it does make sense, and if you could explain how to get a smoother transition and why the feathering is not working for me that well.......please let me know. Really, I am not just being sarcastic. This has come up before. I have increased the feathering in the past to over 50, no real help.
ginger
Like the first one for some reason. I'm never real big on text on frames..but hey...that's your choice. Don't know if that was full frame or not...but the bird is also a bit centered for my tastes. Might crop to move it to the right just a tad.
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This idea was running through my mind as well...don't have the experience in actual practice myself. I really think your idea was excellent...like the others, if it were not for that ring I would have sworn it was a foggy morning. Good going, Ginger! Don't give up...nail it so you will be prepared for the next shot. (Then give us all the steps, so we can learn from all of your hard work!! Maybe write a tutorial?)
I love the effect. I like the colors in #1 and the desaturated branches. I think it's probably not possible to feather a vignette enough to get the fade you need. I think you need to do a mask on a layer. The idea of using several layers to get the gradation is a good one. This is such a beautiful image. Looks like it should be in an Audubon book.
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Starting image (I used one of mine - hope you don't mind, I figured it would be less rude to do so...)
At this point, you can take the photo and put your fancy borders/frames, etc and you're good to go.
Now then, did I even come close to what you were looking to accomplish?
BTW - This was taken straight from the RAW. I haven't applied any curves, saturation, USM, or anything else. Where those operations happen in the work flow I have not yet determined.
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