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Archive 2015 · Bewick's Wren

ThomasCantwell
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Bewick's Wren

I caught this image of a Bewick's Wren about a year ago. It's basically uncropped. I was lucky enough to catch him right as he spread his wings to take off, but the background is woefully busy. Originally I edited it to give it a black background, but maybe I'd like to give it another try with a more light background. Thoughts and suggestions appreciated for how to go about this or if I even should. Thanks!

Original:

Bewick's Wren by Thomas Cantwell, on Flickr

Black background:

Bewick's Wren redo by Thomas Cantwell, on Flickr

Feb 03, 2015 at 12:54 PM

Camperjim
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Bewick's Wren

I prefer the clean, simple look with the black background. But don't go by my opinion since I tend towards the obsessive and compulsive and do not care for clutter.

Feb 03, 2015 at 01:22 PM

sbeme

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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Bewick's Wren

Nice job with the BG.
How would it look with the BG kept at reduced opacity to reduce the distractions? I have never tried that; just a thought.
Scott

Feb 03, 2015 at 02:27 PM

ThomasCantwell
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Bewick's Wren

Thanks, I tried that but it looks unnatural and weird. Right now I'm working on blurring out the background. I'll post it here when I'm finished.

Feb 03, 2015 at 02:57 PM

beavens

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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Bewick's Wren

ThomasCantwell wrote:
Thanks, I tried that but it looks unnatural and weird. Right now I'm working on blurring out the background. I'll post it here when I'm finished.

I was about to say go for blurring.

I prefer the natural look myself. While the simplistic look is much cleaner, it also seems sterile IMO.

Cute little bugger though!

Jeff

Feb 03, 2015 at 03:06 PM

sbeme

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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Bewick's Wren

maybe a combo of blurring and + selective burning?

Feb 03, 2015 at 03:43 PM

ben egbert
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Bewick's Wren

Thats an excellent job of selection and I like the black background but as an alternative how about a different color, like green or brown. Either could be fairly dark.

I have many bird images taken of birds on a perch because the lens I used, 1 500 f4 had such shallow dof, and the background was far away that it ended up nearly a solid color. Green was a common color as was brown, depending on the background. In this case I would choose one of the colors already in the background.

But the image is already good as is.

Feb 03, 2015 at 03:57 PM

RustyBug

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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Bewick's Wren

+1 @ black nice, but somewhat sterile.

sbeme wrote:
maybe a combo of blurring and + selective burning?

Took a stab at it with about 20% opacity @ black overlaid. Much more than that and it kinda started to "weird", although blur to taste could go more if one wanted. Here's my effort @ some, but not too weird. Thought about a vignette also, but didn't try one.

Feb 03, 2015 at 04:02 PM

ThomasCantwell
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Bewick's Wren

Alright, here's my try at narrowing the DOF:

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!

Feb 03, 2015 at 04:55 PM

sbeme

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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Bewick's Wren

On my phone but I think the last two renditions, uours and Kents, really improve
And I like the final version's crop
Scott

Feb 03, 2015 at 07:02 PM

Charlie K.
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Bewick's Wren

The narrow depth of field for me.

Feb 04, 2015 at 06:51 PM


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