One flew under the moon

[Jaedon]

C&C Welcome.

Captured this morning while I was surverying the area I am vacationing in for subjects to shoot. I was shooting the Cranes (ID'd as Sandhill Cranes thanks PaulNJ) but having difficulties as they were a long way off and against a difficult backdrop. So I decided t shoot the moon again as it looked nice sitting there all alone. The birds then took flight as I got my self set up so I waited until it was in frame.

Post work was reqired to get the bird to "pop" and to reveal it's coloration a bit better.

Taken at f8 ISO 200 1/500th.

[trog100]

a rare image.. very nice..

it does remind me of someones painted in witch thow.. he he

trog

[Frog]

I would be very happy to catch such an image.
I might have made the sky a brighter blue in photoshop but that's me.

frog

[trog100]

of course the real question here is.. is it a properly framed and captured shot or simply a piece cropped out of a much larger image that happened to have a bird flying past at the appropriate moment..

i see too many examples of the latter and painted in (humerouse) witches not to be slightly suspicious when what appears to be a "rare" image is presented on this forum for critique..

trog

ps.. just me giving the dead horse one more wack.. he he

[Jaedon]

The only cropping that was done was to get in a bit tighter than the original frame (about 25% was cropped out). I did layer up the bird and do adjustments on the Crane separate fom the rest of te image to get more detail and colour from what was originally visible. This picture was 1 part timing 3 parts luck with a side of PS work thrown in for good measure. I was exposed for the sky and the moon so when the bird entered the frame he was originally almost a sillhouette.

Personally I like to present the image in as close to it's original form as possible and very rarely do I shop somthing in or out to that degree. I will clone out things like distracting branches that I simply could not shoot around or other minor things like that but chaning the image much more than that takes away from the artistry of the original image.

I would agree that there may be some shopped stuff on display (Brent's Devil's Hands for example) but for the most part in this community we are brave enough to admit when we do these things and are asking for opinions on the post work as opposed to the original image.

[Jimmy B]

great catch.

[MarcusK]

Trog, that witch was hilarious....beyond humorous....

As for that great catch, well it is indeed, but the composition is off....i would crop from bottom and left to show more that the Crane is entering the photo....but that's just me!

Marc

[trog100]

"Trog, that witch was hilarious....beyond humorous...."

yes it takes me back to when i posted a "pink sky" pic.. someone said i could paste a blood red moon in to add interest.. i said yes why not the odd witch flying past as well..??

but the real crux of the matter is.. its all to easy to fake so called photographs.. when its presented as a piece of "graphics artistry" i have no problems with anything done out of camera..

but when its presented as a "photograph" i have major problems..

hence my odd comment every so oftten.. he he

trog

[Jaedon]

I understood the meaning Trog but oters may have been taken aback at the comment feeling that you were calling them out on fakery.

In my defence, when I took the picture and saw that I had captured the bird as well my first thought was "No one's gonna believe this".

You are correct that it is easy to fake images which is why I take the moral stand of leaving the image in as close to the original shot as possible in post. I limit my PP to levels, curves and lighting adjustments and when I DO make a major change I either post the original and the adjuststed version OR I admit the work up front in my comments before the image or in the caption explaining what was done.

Overall I think that this was a valuable discussion however and I'm glad that I caught the image and that it caused this dialogue.

[trog100]

the fake witches are winning the day thow Jaedon.. i pretty much get drummed out of town whenever i bring up such "delicate" matters..

thanks for understanding my meaning.. which in esence is to have a library of birds.. witches.. skies.. moons.. cows.. dogs.. indians.. cowboys.. and whatever else i think u might need and simply paint them into a blank image is where i think "photography" is going..

i am just trying to slow done the "progress".. he he he

trog

ps.. calling out the odd fake is okay.. but when fakery becomes the norm.. its time to give up.. which is pretty much what my youngest son tells me to do.. he he.. leave em to it they wont listen is his view.. trying to halt "progress" is a fools game.. something i know to be true but still cant resist doing it sometimes.. he he