Monday, July 09, 2007

Two herons

I took this photo when I was working in Florida in 1995. It was taken with my Canon EOS 100. The reflection was perfect and there was very little colour since it was quite late in the day.

In photoshop I adjusted Levels and Curves and Shadows and then converted it into black and white. I then sharpened the image and cropped some from the bottom and a little from the top. I then added a border around the image.

Damian

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm. A mixed bag for me... So, I'll review the good and the bad!

Good: simple and elegant, esp in black and white. Crystal clear reflections and amazingly clear (although clearly adjusted in PS) water. Unusual and peaceful.

Bad: Ugly distracting blob top left. Really jars the otherwise peaceful image. If it were not there, it would be knockout. Almost fake-looking white-ed out water...may have taken Levels (white point dropper) a touch too far. 2nd heron is too near the black blob and is swamped by it. Perhaps too much empty space.

Judging by the text for Good v Bad, I think it means I dislike it more than I like it. Interesting image, though, D. Thanks for posting.

Critical Light said...

Yes, a mixed bag...for me too but I like it.

I actually did little adjustments in Photoshop. The Levels were not far off at all; just a case of moving the slide in to the left a little and I didn't go past the first indication of data. I did use the Shadows and Highlights to adjust the whiteness but again because the original image has very little colour (or movement for that matter) in the water I did not need to adjust much.

The blob (Mr Chemist, or rather Dr Chemist) is the reflection of water reeds and quite naturally the heron is standing close to it. I once watched an aligator sneak up on a heron in this position and grabbed it...WOW! I actually like the heron being that close, particularly in the reflection because I like the way the heron is a tad hidden by the reeds.

Thanks for you comment...

Dams

Anonymous said...

Dr Lidgard,

I KNOW what that Blob is...I was saying that it was ugly, not that it shouldn't be there....I may not be a sandal-wearing Botanist/Biologist but I know what reeds are! ;-)