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Flying in Formation
Flying in Formation
bassbone


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Birds II (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D70
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
Location: Mystic, CT
Date: Jan 23, 2008
Aperture: F4.8
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/2000
Galleries: Animals, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Jan 23, 2008

 Shot in Mystic right near the Mystic river. I took a quick run over here to take some shots of the draw bridge, but these little pigeons caught my eye. They kept hovering around me, clearly thinking I had some food to share. I was able to have them take off several times and then come swoop around to land back again. I got a few shots off as they approached, trying to shoot them at an angle so the background was just the clear blue sky. This is the best one I captured...

I was going for a high contrast feel, similar to somthing e301 or melethia would do - although they do this much much better than what I have done here.

I like, so I enter....

After a couple of go arounds with SC on my edit - I ended up with a much closer crop on the right so I did not have to clone much if anything out. I think it came out okay and fits into the rules now. There was concern about my clone so I cropped and then concerns about the border (originally simply a white border - so I added a thin black border at the recommendation of a fellow DPCer - thanks you know who you are....)

Processing: Shot in RAW, adjusted curves, exposure. Save as JPEG. Opened in Elements 3.0. Adjusted levels, desaturated using hue/saturation. Noise Ninja to reduce sky noise and to boost local contrast. Added gradient filter. Cropped to size and to remove crane lines. Save for web. USM at large radius and small radius. Cloned out very edge of crane lines on extreme right side of image and added border. Also cloned out edge of wing on right most bird to create separation from the border. Upped contrast and brightness a bit and blurred oversharpened edges of wings. Save.


Statistics
Place: 149 out of 251
Avg (all users): 5.4600
Avg (commenters): 5.9167
Avg (participants): 5.2083
Avg (non-participants): 5.6923
Views since voting: 839
Views during voting: 328
Votes: 200
Comments: 18
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 01/25/2009 06:58:38 AM
Wow. Just noticed the score on this one - I gave it an 8 and figured it finished somewhere near the top! Nice catch of these guys and nice use of high contrast.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/04/2008 01:02:39 PM
Peter, you should know better than to enter something artistic here, LOL. I really like this a lot - very Alfred Hitchcock. The only nit is I'm wanting a little more white space on the right side but of course I realize these shots happen so fast that it's hard to get the composition you want as well as the action. (I assume you added the frame for the purpose of extending that area a bit.) I didn't vote but would have given you a nice score for artistry.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/04/2008 10:14:39 AM
Peter, certainly underappreciated! I like this one very much. should have scored higher, in my opinion. Well taken!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/04/2008 06:51:01 AM
I thought the high contrast worked really well here, I loved the movement and the positioning of the birds through out the frame. I dont think this was given the proper credit it deserved.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/04/2008 01:53:13 AM
I see some experimentation went on here!!! (for me it kinda worked - I gave it a 6). I had loved the composition and the detail of the lead bird, but (IMO) it had a little too much contrast which when combined with the high key meant that it almost had a collage like appearance (some of e301's stuff has that ethereal 'appearing from the light' quality)

One that stood out from the crowd in terms of the way that the challenge had been interpreted and all the better for that
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/04/2008 12:17:53 AM
Personally, I love the processing here. It adds to the bit of fear I feel when I see those birds coming right at me! Great capture, expressions and movement. I'm so curious how you caught so many coming at you like that. Very cool.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/03/2008 02:34:53 PM
the movement the movement 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/01/2008 07:02:31 PM
An artsy, high contrast photo. The only thing I don't like is the bird behind the largest one, it looks too crowded there. Other than that a good composition.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/01/2008 03:03:17 PM
This is a striking picture, it works for me
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/01/2008 01:08:40 PM
Good contrast & detail.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/01/2008 09:35:08 AM
nice composition
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/30/2008 09:18:05 PM
Whatever editing you did, it really makes it look like a movie- Birds, AHHH!!!! Kinda scary! Awesome shot!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/30/2008 03:02:42 PM
Love the high contrast and brightness of this. Very cool shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/30/2008 02:32:48 PM
Contrast is a bit too high.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2008 11:04:49 AM
FOr my taste, this does seem to be a little over processed. The title is very clever though and can relate that to your photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2008 02:36:45 AM
Not clear enough, good capture of flight.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2008 01:19:14 AM
Love it!!! 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2008 01:13:11 AM
I don't care for the editing done to this image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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