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Seaside Sparrow II
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Seaside Sparrow II

by Luke Ormand

Gallery: AvianPosted July 28, 2010132 views15 comments
After a computer crash I'm trying to get organized again... had all the photos backed up which makes things easy, but now I've upgraded to a 27" iMac (previously on a PC) and CS5... I'm a little out of my element so please bear with me!

Cloned out an OOF reed running through the head/body of the bird - attempted to use content aware but that was a real mess... I guess it's not a catchall! Instead relied on the clone stamp which was effective.

Nikon D300s 300 f4 + 1.7X TC HH
f/8
1/800s
ISO 1000

Cropped to 80%, sharpened, no noise reduction.

- Luke

Comments

15 comments
Comment posted by Joel DeYoung on July 28, 2010 at 10:55 PM
Looks good Luke,
I like the details and the saturation of the colors. The composition looks good also. Good head turn and eye contact.
I would maybe add a bit more contrast, but not much. Also the piece of grass pointing to the birds rear is a bit distracting.

Nicely done.
Bummer about the computer crash, but glad you had everything backed up. :smile:
Registered on July 12, 2009, 92 Posts, 1074 Comments
Comment posted by Ron Dudley on July 29, 2010 at 9:24 AM
Luke, Nice pose and great look at the longish bill and yellow supraloral of the species. Clone job looks good and I like your comp. My impression was that I might experiment with bringing overall exposure down slightly.

Sorry to hear about your computer crash. Hope you like your new system.
Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on July 29, 2010 at 9:57 AM
Nice Luke. Oddly the smaller and larger image seem to have very different saturation levels when I look at them. I prefer the smaller. Great pose and I like the simple composition of the reeds. :toast:
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments
Comment posted by Peter Conway on July 29, 2010 at 11:27 AM
HI Luke, It looks like you did a great job with the cloning. I think it may be worth taking out that blade of grass that runs behind the bird too. Curious, did you use the spot healing tool with content aware on the first attempt?

I like your comp on this a lot. :toast:

Peter
Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments
Comment posted by Luke Ormand on July 29, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Dennis,

Not sure why they would look different... the smaller version is a straightforward re-size of the larger version which is how I always process my photos for NPN.

Peter,

"Curious, did you use the spot healing tool with content aware on the first attempt?" huh? :biggrin:

I didn't even know how to access content aware so I watched a quick clip on youtube that probably didn't cover the bases I needed to properly use it. Any advice would be welcomed... not that it took a long time to do it with the clone stamp and healing brush, but obviously content aware is something worth knowing how to use.
Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Ditch on July 29, 2010 at 11:58 AM
You'll love the iMac and will be at home with it quickly.

As Dennis points out the small and large versions look very different. I too prefer the darker tones of the smaller version.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments
Comment posted by Nate Chappell on July 29, 2010 at 7:55 PM
Sweet pose Luke, I agree with Peter on the twig running up to this behind. :toast:
Registered on February 1, 2006, 1158 Posts, 19528 Comments
Comment posted by Nick Saunders on July 29, 2010 at 9:44 PM
Yep, lose the little twig and its a winner Luke. Cool looking Sparrow.
Registered on February 6, 2008, 321 Posts, 3035 Comments
Comment posted by Simon Bennett on July 29, 2010 at 10:40 PM
Nice pose and clean green background.
Registered on February 4, 2007, 350 Posts, 4614 Comments
Comment posted by Rob Drummond on July 29, 2010 at 10:49 PM
Really like the starkness and simplicity of this Luke, great detail in the larger image.

cheers
Rob
Registered on November 8, 2003, 617 Posts, 8267 Comments
Comment posted by Peter Conway on July 30, 2010 at 10:29 AM
Luke,

The computer stuff is not my strength either but I have successfully done the following:

For lines (like blades of grass) that you want removed, select the "spot healing brush tool" on my screen it is the 7th one down from the top on the left hand side. It is in the same group of tools as the red eye tool and healing brush tool, just click and hold the button down until it shows the whole group and then select the spot healing brush.

After you have selected it you will see some buttons across the top of the page. Make sure "content aware" is checked. Then size the brush by using the [ or ] key next to the P on the keyboard so that the circle is just bigger than the line you want to remove. Start at one end and hold the clicker down as you slide the circle over the unwanted line. I do a couple inches at a time.

Sorry if these instructions are way too simplistic but that is how I need people to tell me what to do or I get lost. :smile:

See if it works for you.

Peter
Registered on June 25, 2007, 347 Posts, 3913 Comments
Comment posted by Steve Balke on July 30, 2010 at 10:03 PM
The composition works well here, Luke. All that empty space at the rhs somehow fits fine. I bet that you will really enjoy the iMac. I run both a PC and an iMac but I find the latter is in use 90% of the time. :toast:
Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments
Comment posted by Mia McPherson on July 31, 2010 at 4:36 PM
Luke,

Always nice to see this species posted and I love how well the yellow supraloral shows in your image. Very nice eye contact too
Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments
Comment posted by Muhammad Zaid Wani on August 11, 2010 at 1:46 AM
A very special shot!

I like the pose of the bird and the clean background makes this a winner. :smile:

:toast:
Registered on August 18, 2005, 23 Posts, 1406 Comments
Comment posted by Ingrid Vekemans on August 17, 2010 at 2:20 PM
I love the BG on this, great shade of green.
Registered on August 2, 2010, 138 Posts, 780 Comments