Close Up

Here is a pic of a close up of a seagull, may be a 2nd time for some of you whom have visisted my galleries, but I would like more opinions on this particular picture:

http://www.pbase.com/image/1367257/medium.jpg--I am the Great I am

Mephy

Mephy:

perhaps you should describe what you are trying to say with this picture. then we could comment on that.

otherwise its just a seagulls head.

My2¢--LarryB http://www.fotops.com

I have to agree. It doesn't tell me much except that it is a seaguls head. It seems like it is lacking punch. Perhaps including more bird in the picture and applying the rule of thirds might help a little. What made you take the picture? What made this more interesting than other seagul pictures?

LarryB said:

Mephy:

perhaps you should describe what you are trying to say with this
picture. then we could comment on that.

otherwise its just a seagulls head.

My2¢
--
LarryB
http://www.fotops.com

Click to expand...

If the seagull was facing the camera, it would express some involvement with the viewer (whatever the viewer feels). I know that these guys don't pose on demand, but facing the lens and including the wings and feet in the shot would "say" a bit more. I'm a rookie just trying to get involved so I might be way off.

Mephy said:

Here is a pic of a close up of a seagull, may be a 2nd time for
some of you whom have visisted my galleries, but I would like more
opinions on this particular picture:



--
I am the Great I am

Mephy

Click to expand...

Mephy,

Following up on the suggestions of others here, I tried a crop, punched the levels a bit, and added a simple frame. Does this distract from your original image or do you like it better?

Original:



Revised:



What do you think? Note that I put the gulls eye on the intersection of the right-upper thirds line and the frame color brings out the color of the eye and adds interest to the unique beak.

jim

--galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3

Sandman:

ya, I think that helps some.

cropping the images is an important part of the artistry. because you always, always, always want to include more in the image-area than you need. then crop out the unnecessary.

animals require a high degree of patience.
and an example of typical behavior is important.

My 2¢--LarryB http://www.fotops.com

I agree that the picture lacks impact. I've split the foreground and background. Enhanced the detail and clarity of the gull, while darkening and blurring the background to make the gull stand out more.

I also cropped a lot of (IMHO) "excess baggage" that does nothing for the image.

http://www.pbase.com/image/1491904.jpg--Spannie

I understand what you are saying by an animal facing the camera, but in a birds instance, this IS facing the camera, birds can't really see straight ahead, they look sideways, therefore, if he were facing forward, it would be less involvement.

soulfish said:

If the seagull was facing the camera, it would express some
involvement with the viewer (whatever the viewer feels). I know
that these guys don't pose on demand, but facing the lens and
including the wings and feet in the shot would "say" a bit more.
I'm a rookie just trying to get involved so I might be way off.

Click to expand...

--I am the Great I amMephy

I have learned to accept that LarryB will never be happy with any picture.

No Comment

LarryB said:

Mephy:

perhaps you should describe what you are trying to say with this
picture. then we could comment on that.

otherwise its just a seagulls head.

My2¢
--
LarryB
http://www.fotops.com

Click to expand...

--I am the Great I amMephy

That is nice looking, but people, I did not take this picture with intent to print out, I am just pretty much still just getting use to my Uzi. I have had itnow for about 5 months I guess, and I wanted to see if I could zoom in that far, hand held, and still get a decent picture, and I am happy with it.

Sandman said:

Mephy,

Following up on the suggestions of others here, I tried a crop,
punched the levels a bit, and added a simple frame. Does this
distract from your original image or do you like it better?

Original:



Revised:



What do you think? Note that I put the gulls eye on the
intersection of the right-upper thirds line and the frame color
brings out the color of the eye and adds interest to the unique
beak.

jim

--
galleries at: http://www.pbase.com/sandman3

Click to expand...

--I am the Great I amMephy

Spannie,

One word, GREAT!!! That is a very AWESOME edit.

Spannie said:

I agree that the picture lacks impact. I've split the foreground
and background. Enhanced the detail and clarity of the gull, while
darkening and blurring the background to make the gull stand out
more.

I also cropped a lot of (IMHO) "excess baggage" that does nothing
for the image.

Click to expand...

--I am the Great I amMephy

Wow! That's gorgeous!

Tell me, were you able to bring out so much detail because of the pixels in the photo???? Mephy, did you shoot in SHQ or TIFF? I was amazed at the detail...even the red circling the eye.

By the way, Mephy.......FYI........the gull looks to be a "Ring-billed gull"...according to Peterson's field guide.

PS to LarryB....I think you are trying to challenge us to do better photos....please don't stop.--LucyC3020Zpbase supporter

Spannie,

I am impressed with your editing skill! Could you include more details about how you did this? I am a novice in both photography and photoshop so I need all the help I can get!

Thanks!
L1

Spannie said:

I agree that the picture lacks impact. I've split the foreground
and background. Enhanced the detail and clarity of the gull, while
darkening and blurring the background to make the gull stand out
more.

I also cropped a lot of (IMHO) "excess baggage" that does nothing
for the image.



--
Spannie

Click to expand...

I always shoot in SHQ. Thanx for the little FYI!

Lucy said:

Wow! That's gorgeous!
Tell me, were you able to bring out so much detail because of the
pixels in the photo???? Mephy, did you shoot in SHQ or TIFF?
I was amazed at the detail...even the red circling the eye.

By the way, Mephy.......FYI........the gull looks to be a
"Ring-billed gull"...according to Peterson's field guide.

PS to LarryB....I think you are trying to challenge us to do better
photos....please don't stop.
--
Lucy
C3020Z
pbase supporter

Click to expand...

--I am the Great I amMephy

Now, here's my re edited version my own pic, gimme some opinions:

http://www.pbase.com/image/1497551.jpg--I am the Great I amMephy

Thanks for letting me know you use SHQ.......that's what I am using now, too. It was amazing to see what minute detail could be pulled out of the photo......wow.

As to the re-edited version, I don't care much for the background......but at least you are trying.

I'm just up to lesson 4 on "50 Basic Techniques for Digital Photogrraphy" (I think I have that right??) and it blows me away to see what 'can' be done with Elements. It's exciting to learn! Can't wait to get to the next lesson.
--LucyC3020Zpbase supporter

Honestly, I don't even use all those fancy features, my reedited version was just using good ole Paintbursh and Photo Editor that came with windows. Just playing around with it, that took me 3 minutes to do.--I am the Great I amMephy

Mephy said:

Here is a pic of a close up of a seagull, may be a 2nd time for
some of you whom have visisted my galleries, but I would like more
opinions on this particular picture:

Click to expand...

I really like the photo, (wish I had taken it), but I think if the entire body and legs were in the frame, it would be as good as one could do. Keep Shooting.

Ken
--KenD-460Z, C-3030Z, C-2100UZ. )

L1 said:

Spannie,

I am impressed with your editing skill! Could you include more
details about how you did this? I am a novice in both photography
and photoshop so I need all the help I can get!

Thanks!
L1

Click to expand...

L1,

Hey that's an interesting name - are you a starwars type? ;-o

First I downloaded the largest image available (it was 1600X1200) and cropped it to the area I liked.

I then created a layer and masked the gull itself. This is the tricky part to get the edges of the mask to appear naturally and takes a lot of fiddling and trial and error. I am busy practising with the "extract" feature, but for this type of picture with (soft edges), I have not been very succesful.

I then copied the gull to a new layer and enhanced it with levels, Unsharp mask to take the fog away (40% 40pixels; 3) (I can't remeber the exact settings, but it was in that range), another unsharp mask to sharpen the small detail (300%; 0.4pixels; 0). I think I added another unsharp mask for middle type details (100%; 0.8; 3). I then smoothed out the gull's edges with the eraze tool at 50%.

Next I copied the background to a new layer and cloned the area adjacent to the gull over the gull (just on this background layer). I did this to prevent funky edge effects during the next step. I applied a gaussian blur (8 pixels, I think) to make the backgound even more out of focus. Applied Levels to darken and intensify the background.

That's about it. Oh yeah I reduced the size 50% for the web upload.

Hope it helps you a bit. Most of the work I done to images is based on "gut feel" and I don't really have any specific routine or process.

The main problem (or challange) with post processing is to do it in such a way and to the extent that the image still appears natural.

--Spannie

Thanks, Spannie! I'll give it a whirl and see how it goes.

L1