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Gull at Sunset, Looming Storm
Gull at Sunset, Looming Storm
Bear_Music


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Wildlife III (Advanced Editing V)
Collection: Challenges
Camera: Canon EOS-20D
Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L USM
Location: Harwich Port, MA, USA
Date: Jan 20, 2007
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/250
Galleries: High Dynamic Range (HDR), Birds
Date Uploaded: Jan 21, 2007

 Tone mapped in Photomatix Pro from a single RAW exposure, exported to CS2

Almost no color adjustment in this. No levels/contrast adjustment after tone mapping. The sky was of a remarkable granularity, I actually liked it, but I thought I would get hammered for it so I masked out the gull and used neat image on the sky. I sharpened the gull itself with focus magic, which seemed to crisp up the details nicely; the bird itself is in focus and sharp, actually, but the lighting is flat.

I merged the NI layer with the base layer then did a gothic glow on the whole thing; layered that over the base, ran high pass on it, and faded it to 50%. Flattened again, cloned the base layer, loaded the BG selection, and ran some blur on it then fiddled with fading the blur until I had what seemed to be the best-looking, ominous BG.

Resize, output sharpen (very little), border, save for web. 100% jpg at 57.1 Kb, LOL

Statistics
Place: 36 out of 218
Avg (all users): 6.4770
Avg (commenters): 7.5217
Avg (participants): 6.3942
Avg (non-participants): 6.5407
Views since voting: 1115
Views during voting: 412
Votes: 239
Comments: 28
Favorites: 4 (view)

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AuthorThread
 01/31/2007 04:03:25 PM
WOW. That's just gorgeous.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 09:00:57 PM
Someday I hope to master light like you. Should have scored much higher.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/28/2007 06:06:15 PM
Good colors. Wish the wings were in a slightly different position to show more movement, though.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 04:47:57 PM
Very elegant image. I love the lightening of the storm area to the right and behind the bird.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 03:22:43 PM
wow nice placement...I also like the border treatment
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 09:53:11 AM
Nice warm light - I like how the colors contrast. A strong abstract feel to the shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 06:00:25 AM
Very nice light on this image. I also like your choice of cropping. Great shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 01:39:51 AM
Awesome capture, great background and I like the way sunlught hits the bird.Beauty work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/28/2007 12:37:19 AM
Nice, very nice. Love your colors and composition. 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/27/2007 12:26:18 PM
love that golden curve. 7
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/27/2007 11:23:20 AM
Love the way the light stikes the downward slope of wings. Location of bird in far lower left grabs attention.Very nice photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/27/2007 08:49:08 AM
Wonderful minimalism and a great catch of light.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/26/2007 12:17:24 PM
wonderful drama in the sky...the light is perfect...hope this image does well for you
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 07:54:01 AM
very dramatic,great position of the bird,well done
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/25/2007 04:44:50 AM
this really works. good comp. bird detail is right for the distance as it's action we're getting not detailed plummage.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 11:14:06 AM
I'd be interested to know if this was very saturated or not but regardless the look of it is pleasing as is the position of it's wings.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 10:50:26 AM
wow..keep going!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 05:39:54 AM
Like the positioning and crop; yellow cast is very strong, though that makes sense at that time of day. Looks somewhat like a painting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/24/2007 03:20:42 AM
great light and color!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 08:10:57 AM
at first: sorry! my english is not so good....
I like how the bird was placed. The light gives a special expression to the photo, nearly a little as in a "drama". the photo pleases me very well. I see a winner! Good luck! - 9 -
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 04:24:31 AM
Classic. I love the curve of his wings as he wings through the sky. Lovely composition. I like the thin line of a frame too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2007 02:48:26 AM
Very nice capture. The color tones of the gull against the forboding sky are a great combination. Not digging the border line but that wont affect my vote. Bumping up to 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 06:30:16 PM
A good pic, but it seems to have been hit pretty hard with some post processing that just doesn't work for me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 03:34:48 PM
Lovely capture on an often photographed subject. Very nice
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 03:26:37 PM
Outstanding. Love everything about it. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 09:52:12 AM
Lovely minimalist photo! A solid 8 for you!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2007 05:21:51 AM
this is lovely, simplistic beautiful..8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/21/2007 07:40:30 PM
Beautiful lighting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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