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Dipper

Discussion

11 replies
Posted by Tom_W on March 5, 2006 at 4:57 PM
Dipper
Went out today for a wee look-see (as my Gran would have called it)

Sky was overcast and there ain't much light down in the dales. These birds are just setting out their patch at the moment; there doesn't appear to be as many as last year.

500mm/Tpod/X2/Flash
80'/F9/640ASA/Fill in Flash -1 EV
70% crop/USM/Levels and playing around with a new toy :biggrin:
Posted by Tom_W on March 5, 2006 at 4:59 PM
summat weird going on here..can you see the pic?

T
Posted by John Chapman on March 5, 2006 at 5:36 PM
Hi Tom
yes I see your Pic. Nice shot of the Dipper nice to see Spring is in the air.
John
Aberdeen :toast:
Posted by Tim Munsey on March 6, 2006 at 1:43 AM
King of the mountain, great low angle and setting.

:toast:

Tim
Posted by Paul Gibbs on March 6, 2006 at 2:29 AM
Nice, seen these many times, nice shot of this increasingly rare bird. I loke the bright greens to contrast with the black plumage.
Posted by PhilH on March 6, 2006 at 3:43 AM
Nice image of the dipper Tom.... however I am not keen on the fact that it obvious some PP work has gone on, blurring the bg maybe?

All the best

Posted by Tom_W on March 6, 2006 at 6:16 AM
Phil :biggrin:

As I said I was playing with a new toy - a WACOM Tablet.

It beats a mouse hands down for efficency and will increase bt productivity significantly. I actually installed it last night and chose a image from yesterday to play with.

The dipper photo was fine, but the big problem was that the bird was always very close to the moss covered rocks in the BG hence delination of the bird from the BG wasn't good.

It took about a minute to roughly isolate the bird and perch, invert the selection, and the blur the BG; the blur being deliberately rather heavy cause I was playing around. The selection wasn't pucka either; in particular the breast area of the bird shows to much error in it - a qucik wave with a wand. If I had of done it pucka it would have probably taken about 2 minutes; it would have taken a lot lot longer with a mouse, over 10mins on this type of image, so I am well pleased with the purchase.

Nick_U and I were wondering who would pick it up first.. might have known :biggrin:

I will post the actual photo tonight.

Posted by PhilH on March 6, 2006 at 6:23 AM
LOL Tom, look forward to the 'real' image.....

Been using a Wacom for 2yrs now, I can't work wothout it now, even got a smaller portable version for my laptop which works great. Its always a laugh when our IT department has to do some work from my computer (quite often as I am an IT liaison thingy) as they can never use the absolute positioning.....

All the best

Posted by Kevin Lewis on March 6, 2006 at 2:34 PM
I'm planning to hit Lathkill Dale on this Thursday, hopefully I'll come away with something this nice. Actually I'm hoping I can find the damn location first lmao
Posted by Tom_W on March 6, 2006 at 2:45 PM
Kevin,

I would suggest that you wait a while, as the light ain't good up here at the moment, and the river is in a bit of a spait at the moment given the snow. That said if your up here I am sure you will get something.

Above is the actual post without any playing with the tablet but I have slightly over sharpened it and don't have time to redo it.

Posted by Alan Woolnough on March 6, 2006 at 4:56 PM
hmmmmm, i quite like the effect Tom,

It does seem to give the image a very 3D look to my eyes.

Either way, its a very nice typical dipper shot.

Alan
Posted by Kevin Lewis on March 7, 2006 at 3:14 AM
Thanks for the update Tom :-)