Hummer on Stage

Gallery: Photo ArtPosted September 17, 201173 views5 comments

I liked this recent hummer shot but the bg was crowded with leaves and stems. Using Bokeh 2 did give a very pleasing but ordinary looking unfocused bg. I went further and obtained a watercolor version of the bg from Snap Art 3 (purchased recently at a sale price I couldn't resist) and then went to Painter 12 where I used a variety of brushes. After quite a few iterations this is what I ended up with. I purposefully confined the texture to the bg to avoid any deterioration of detail in hummer and flower. The bg now reminds me of stage lights: hence the title!

All comments most welcome.

The techs underlying the photographic image here are as follows:
1D Mark IV, 400 mm f/5.6, 1.4x TC, hand held: ISO 1250, 1/1600 s, f/9.0, 0 EV, 6 MP (38% of 16 MP full frame), NR, exposure adjustment, sharpening.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Pat Sampson on September 18, 2011 at 10:27 AM

I like the processing on the bg very much Steve. The only thing I might consider doing, is blending some of the same processing into the bird and flower as well.

pat

Registered on May 19, 2007, 953 Posts, 15989 Comments

Comment posted by denise ippolito on September 18, 2011 at 11:11 AM

Steve, Nice work with the filtering. Pat makes a good suggestion. Nice capture BTW!!

Registered on December 17, 2009, 202 Posts, 1529 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on September 18, 2011 at 3:46 PM

Thank you so much for your comments, Pat and Denise. In light of you both mentioning blending of the bg processing into the main subjects and the fact that I went through considerable efforts in this image to avoid doing just that, I thought that I should comment at this point. Essentially I liked the photographic image of the subjects too much to part with any of it. I wanted to preserve all of the photographic detail in the bird and flower while using Photo Art effects to improve the bg.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by David W. Kelly on September 18, 2011 at 11:43 PM

I like this as presented Steve but I also think Pat makes a great suggestion.

Registered on October 7, 2005, 883 Posts, 6590 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on September 21, 2011 at 5:01 PM

Thank you for the additional comment, David and thank you all for the encouragement and suggestions. Currently, for each Photo Art image I post, I really wrestle with how much of the original photographic image should be visible. At this point, I do find myself biased towards the detail and color of the photograph for the main subject. However, suggestions that more Photo Art should show, especially, as in this case, when they are unanimous for an image, certainly give me something to think about! To be continued.....

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments