I’m going to be busy with PhotoShop tonight…

Actually I'll be using PhotoImpact, but that has less of a ring to it.

The fox turned up on cue, but the light drizzle and dark night played havoc with the camera, so most of the pictures I managed to get were covered in orbs caused by rain droplets, as in this shot:

orbs1109019

Orbs are fairly common and don't just happen in rain. Dust can cause them as well. They are quite distinctive but if there aren't too many it's relatively easy to use the clone brush to remove them, and I very occasionally do that. The other main tweaks I make on pictures are generally just to improve the lighting, or remove our washing pole if it gets in the way of a decent shot. The fox itself is never retouched, though I do crop quite a number of photos to get closer in and have been known to clean up any stray rubbish that's crept into a shot. Just for reference, the very close-up images in the albums are nearly all taken without any zoom. The fox and the cub allow me to get within a couple of feet, and the main problem is managing to frame the shot to fit them in to it. I've plenty where they are simply too close or where I'm shooting in the dark and have angled the camera inaccurately. Taking photos at night is pretty hit and miss as the viewing screen is invariably black.

Anyway, to demonstrate the effects, here's another of tonight's photos complete with distinctive orb. This is the full frame taken, no zoom. I was sitting on the ground just below the raised patio where the fox is, maybe 5 or 6 feet away (at most):

fox1109012orig-sm

Now here it is after some editing. I've cloned out the orb, cropped slightly, retouched the leaves on the far right which had a slight orb effect, and enhanced the lighting:

fox1109012sm

And finally, I decided to have some fun with it:

orbs21109012sm

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This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. lokutus-prime

    12 Sep 2005

    I also use Photoshop -but I have never thought of incorporating soap bubbles into a pic the way you have, in one of the images you show here. Great artistic result! I like your other pics also. In one image, previous blog, I think I see the fox 'marking his territory' (your garden); that should prove interesting if any other fox stray on to 'his' patch. Keep posting. Delightful pictures.
    ~lokutus

  2. Words

    12 Sep 2005

    The bubble effect is one of the better defaults that's packaged in PhotoImpact. You can adjust the number of bubbles, reflection, size etc. Neat!

    You're ight about territory marking. A fair bit of "spraying" is common around feeding places, but they also defecate to mark territory that's particularly guarded. Thankfully it's not buried, so it's easy to clear up. We used to have a dog so not too much of a hassle as I've got somewhat used to poop-scooping over the past 15 years 😉

  3. anonymous

    11 Dec 2007

    sk writes:

    I have a feral cat feeding station in front of my place and over the past few months I have seen a large red fox in the area. Recently, I have started getting sizable poops that are not cat defecations. It is no problem to pick up. Heck, I am used to cleaning stuff left by Newfoundland dogs so this is minor. But I am wondering whether the station is safe for the cats if the fox is using it too.

  4. Words

    11 Dec 2007

    I would think the cat is more of a danger to the fox than the other way round. From what I've seen with domestic cats, the cat and fox will tend to leave each other alone. But if they get into a scrap, a cat is well armed with its claws and is likely to come out ok.

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