Posted by Andy Astbury on September 28, 2007 at 3:26 AM
Not the best Kezzy shot to grace this forum, posting more to show the techs really.
I'd spent 3 hours in my cramped pop-up hide on a drained pit waiting for a Paddy Wagtail to show up - which never happened and the sky clouded over as well so I packed up.
I was just driving out of the field gate when this bird suddenly appeared and went into a hover 50-60 yards away. I stopped the car, threw the door open and quickly propped the Sigmonster on top of the open door whilst dialling in +3ev and managed five shots before the bird raked off downwind.
Opened the image in CS and the sky was blown completely - no surprises but boy was it bright..
CtrlACV to paste in new layer then switching back to the original layer I filled the whole canvass a very light grey. Switching back to the new layer I opened the new pluggin I got - MaskPro 4.1, selected about 30 random random points in the blown BG and then just painted the white out in one corner then double-clicked the Magic Brush tool and let the programme calculate the mask.
Worked a treat, clicked Apply and CS reopened with the bird perfectly masked against the grey BG.
As I said, not the best shot in the world but thought I'd share the experience
Thanks for looking folks
Posted by Jeroen Stel on September 28, 2007 at 3:37 AM
Great PS skills here!
I use NIK-filers (digital filters) in the same way you have used the grey here. Most of the times when i have a blown out white sky i use the "Graduated Blue" traditional NIK filter and set it to about 15% transparency and this will give you a wonderful graduated blue sky.
Well done Andy!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Posted by Paul Hillion on September 28, 2007 at 4:34 AM
Thanks for the info Andy and nice work, I've been thinking about getting the MaskPro plug-in and seeing your results here has persuaded me to give it a try.
Posted by Andy Bate on September 28, 2007 at 4:50 AM
nice work fella
Posted by Rob Howard on September 28, 2007 at 7:48 AM
Hi Andy,
Nice PS skills and shot. Looks like one of this summers young to me, Kestrel's seem to have had a good year for a change.
Discussion
6 repliesI'd spent 3 hours in my cramped pop-up hide on a drained pit waiting for a Paddy Wagtail to show up - which never happened and the sky clouded over as well so I packed up.
I was just driving out of the field gate when this bird suddenly appeared and went into a hover 50-60 yards away. I stopped the car, threw the door open and quickly propped the Sigmonster on top of the open door whilst dialling in +3ev and managed five shots before the bird raked off downwind.
Opened the image in CS and the sky was blown completely - no surprises but boy was it bright..
CtrlACV to paste in new layer then switching back to the original layer I filled the whole canvass a very light grey. Switching back to the new layer I opened the new pluggin I got - MaskPro 4.1, selected about 30 random random points in the blown BG and then just painted the white out in one corner then double-clicked the Magic Brush tool and let the programme calculate the mask.
Worked a treat, clicked Apply and CS reopened with the bird perfectly masked against the grey BG.
Techs
D2XS + 300-800mm @ 800mm
ISO 400
+3ev giving 1/100th @ f9
8Mb crop
ViewNX + CS3 + OnOne MaskPro 4.1
As I said, not the best shot in the world but thought I'd share the experience
Thanks for looking folks
I use NIK-filers (digital filters) in the same way you have used the grey here. Most of the times when i have a blown out white sky i use the "Graduated Blue" traditional NIK filter and set it to about 15% transparency and this will give you a wonderful graduated blue sky.
Well done Andy!
Greetings,
Jeroen Stel
Nice PS skills and shot. Looks like one of this summers young to me, Kestrel's seem to have had a good year for a change.
Regards
Rob
Yesterday I have a similar thing but the Kestrel was about 20 yards away and 15 foot off the ground..... no camera on me though