Swans for some C&C

Fajitas!

Some swans for your critical eyes... Taken today with some of Roen's lovely L lenses in Gra... Graiguenamanagh? (sp?)









All shot in RAW on a Canon 5D with either a 135 f/2 or a 300 f/4 IS

No photoshop trickery other than a wee bit of dodging.

elven

Such a difficult subject to photograph because a) there are thousands of millions of pictures of them everywhere and b) it's so difficult to get detail in the feathers and still show them as white. Funnily enough come to think of it I've seen a good few boardsie swan pics... anyway about yours.... first and third are very 'nice picture, hmm, a swan, very pretty' but the second and fourth are real pictures in their own right. You know, a scene, made up of the light and the bird and other elements too to make something greater than the components. The fourth in particular has some magic in it. Yummy.

Oh. P.S. It would be quite good actually, if you felt like it of course, if you went into a bit of detail about how you feel about each, just out of curiosity to see if you had a different view?

Fajitas!

Cheers Elven - The 4th shot is my favourite from the day, really happy with it. They're a bollox to expose for. By the end, I was just spot metering for the swan and hoping for the best!

Fenster

I like #1 by far, great shot!

I'm a little iffy on the rest, they all seem underexposed.

elven

Fajitas! wrote:

By the end, I was just spot metering for the swan and hoping for the best!

Pah. Show off.

*skulks away in huff muttering about spot metering*

Ruu_Old

I like uimhir a dó best, the swan looks very distinguished out there in front and the boat in the background. Number 1 is also excellent.

311

I like the fourth one the most ,all the shots are great though.
Lucky B%st%d

Roen

Four and two for moi, then three and one in order of preference.
I didn't get a chance to PP mine but I know I got a least one good one
Congrats!

Fajitas!

Cheers lads!

Looking forward to seeing yours Roen.

Fenster, they are a bit dark, but it's more intentional than a technical mistake. The only one that's been properly underexposed is the last one. The rest were going for a quite dark look...I guess, fairly inspired by Noah Grey's photos of swans!

Valentia

elven wrote:

Pah. Show off.

*skulks away in huff muttering about spot metering*

You bet me to it!!

While the first one is good the clip off the wing just takes away from it for me. I love the cold silhouette feel in the last one though. The tone is great too. #2 doesn't do anything for me and #3 is very nice but I would paint the front boyo with a bit of light, feels like he could do with a glow.

Fajitas!

Ah come on now, it's only an inch off

I think I might give the third a redo, use some diffuse glow?

Valentia

Fajitas! wrote:

Ah come on now, it's only an inch off

I think I might give the third a redo, use some diffuse glow?

Yep! Give it a lash.

elven

mmm, diffuse glow... my favourite

311

Diffuse glow ,give a shot a glaring look ?

Fajitas!

Hmmm, kinda. The diffuse glow was much too bright, so I combined with with an overlaid layer of gaussian blur, followed by a semi transparent layer with dodged shadows, and another semi transparent curve adjustment layer...Basically, walking a fine line of overexposing the bloody things while getting a glow in there...and to be honest...it's nearly the same with all the balancing!

Anyways - Go for it!

Valentia

Nearly there The top of his head needs a light switched on. 'Tis a little dark. Otherwise, spot on.

Fajitas!

Right...how's that? ^^^

Valentia

Jazus all the lights are gone out I don't see any pic?

Fajitas!

It's in the edit just up there!!!

Valentia

Ah! Sorry. That's what those arrowey things were :eek: Slow on the uptake tonight:(

I know it probably isn't kosher but I'd chance cloning up the bright neck. It mightn't work but it would take the head out of the background. Bet this feels like you are back from your holidays early!

Valentia

BTW There is no mention of edit on your post so I'm not sure it has been updated.

440Hz

Yeah they're swans alright.





That was the question wasn't it?





Ok ok... great shots Al... love 3 and 4 the most... well done.

Fajitas!

Lol, ah I started back on Tuesday!

I played with cloning when I was dodging it, and tbh, it'd need a fair few hours work to get it looking perfect. It was shot in the shadow of a bridge with sunlight coming through one of the arches, bouncing back up onto the swans... I don't think it would look 'right' I guess...

Btw, might be up your direction tomorrow with Ali B. I'll give you a text if we're heading near Trim!

Fajitas!

Valentia wrote:

BTW There is no mention of edit on your post so I'm not sure it has been updated.

I edited the pic from the source, so I didn't go through the post!

Valentia

A quick and dirty job. As you say time is the boy:

Valentia

Fajitas! wrote:

I edited the pic from the source, so I didn't go through the post!

This technology still has me baffled be times!

Fajitas!

It does indeed look good, hmmmm.. I'll see what I have to do on sunday...

colmranger

There are Whooper Swans using the lake at Charleville. Would be nice if ye could get some nice shots if they are there.

Fajitas!

I'm sure we'll be checking it out

Valentia

colmranger wrote:

There are Whooper Swans using the lake at Charleville. Would be nice if ye could get some nice shots if they are there.

But do they play the shaggin' guitar??