Technical > Digital Imaging > [No Edit] What do you think?

[No Edit] What do you think?

Composite

reply to SueS
It's a composite, but to my eye, it's a very good one. I really like the bird's standing out so well from the blurred background.

reply to SueS

reply to SueS

reply to SueS
Composite. The shadows and light on the bird look wrong.

reply to SueS
Composite, but very good. In addition to the lighting and shadows, the sharpness is far greater on the bird than on the water at the same relatative distance from the lens. (What badd said.)

Also, he's far too low over the water to be in "cruise mode."

reply to SueS
not

reply to Hawk

said by Hawk:

said by SueS:

Composite or not?

Not. Just a really good shot

reply to SueS
Posting a copy of the original. This photo could have been cropped a few different ways, this is the one I chose. I did normal work flow and cloned out the buoy, because it was competing for attention.

Interesting comments. The photo is not a composite. I was not intentionally trying to fool anyone, I was just curious, because I could see how folks might think it was a composite. The image is about a 50% crop of the original. The bird was any where from a ½ to full football field away and the background was a long way behind the bird. I was in the process of shooting something else and caught the bird from the side flying by and swung around in time to catch him. The camera picked him up quickly because he was out in good light and in the open with nothing else to fool the camera.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

reply to SueS
Looking at the original explains why the focus was all wrong in your original post which is what made me think it was a composite.
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Just another day in Paradise

reply to SueS
As badd says, the focus perspective is different than when looking at the original. The removal of the buoy explains the somewhat blurry focus in that spot, which contributed to what I saw.

I also see that the bird's cruising altitude is higher than it appeared to be.

reply to SueS
You know when you download photos to your computer, and the first pass you get rid of the photos that don't make the cut. Well this one was a "maybe" I will come back and take another look. After I played with it I kind of liked it, so it was a nice surprise. I prefer bird photos with some background other than plain blue sky's or only water, anything to add some interest.

Sue, it's not always easy to do composites so they look 100% right. Actually, oft times, more than not, they aren't. But working with them and playing around with them is a heck of a lot of fun. Unless you have to have the perfect look, I would just continue to work with them, and enjoy the whole thing. Sometimes, by doing so, you can actually make a silk purse from a sow's ear!