More Photo Paintings

Another foggy November day, and more slowed down photography. Unlike previous images these ones have had some editing done, but only to draw out the contrasts as the fog managed to wash everything out. I've been playing around with various editing tools lately and have switched to using Photoshop for raw conversion (previously I used Canon's DPP). I'm also getting my head round Lightroom which looks very powerful, but there's a learning curve.

Anyway, here are a few shots. The first is a herring gull coming in to splashdown in the water.

Next up is a cormorant on its take-off run. This one was a real struggle to edit as there was next to no contrast to work with. I've pulled up the 'blacks' and 'midtones' a long way to create the contrast; and then brightened the overall image. There's no colour manipulation, or other filtering other than noise reduction and a touch of sharpening to finish.

Finally, another heron image. Again I pulled the shadows up quite a bit, but otherwise this was relatively straightforward. The heron had just landed and was fluffing its wings.

I would actually quite enjoy some decent weather. Maybe tomorrow morning…
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Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

This entry was posted in water birds and tagged , , .

10 Comments

  1. cakkleberrylane November 23, 2011 at 1:11 am #

    Very artistic photos!

  2. derWandersmann November 23, 2011 at 3:11 am #

    The gloom kinda palls, eh?
    I like the heron best, I think.

  3. claudeb November 23, 2011 at 9:11 am #

    Photo paintings indeed! Awesome work there.

  4. Cynthia23 November 23, 2011 at 2:11 pm #

    NICE work, so creative! :up:

  5. Words November 23, 2011 at 10:11 pm #

    Cynthia, thanks!

  6. Words November 23, 2011 at 10:11 pm #

    Lois, thanks!

  7. Words November 23, 2011 at 10:11 pm #

    Thanks Felix! It's been a real eye-opener discovering that this is possible.

  8. Words November 23, 2011 at 10:11 pm #

    dW, after a while the same thing always leaves you wanting some change. Which I got today!

  9. SittingFox November 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm #

    Interesting effect with the cormorant 🙂

  10. Words November 27, 2011 at 11:11 pm #

    Adele, thanks! These are very much dependent on the light conditions. Any hint of brightness and they just become a white-out.