I was fortunate to grab a flying Cliff Swallow (took lotsa tries) but it had a crumby looking building wall in the background so I shot the sky and crafted it into the shot using ReMask 5. I also used AI Clear. Shot using a D500, Nikon 2-500 lens, Nikon 1.4 TC, hand held, cropped to 2262 x 1558, 1/3200th, f/8.0, ISO 720
Hard to believe no one’s commented on this image, Dave. We have a colony of these that nest on one end of our garage and I’ve never managed a decent flight shot, let alone something with this kind of detail and exposure. With the fore-knowledge that you substituted the background, I can find a few places along the edges of the bird that could use a touch of clean up, but they are very inconspicuous. You might also try shooting the sky at the same focal distance as you were at for the swallow-in this case, it looks like the clouds were in focus which they wouldn’t be if you’d shot the swallow against them.
This is all real nitpicking on what I consider a stellar image.
Dennis
I shot the fake background with the same lens, same conditions except I DID focus on the clouds then hit it with a big gaussian blur in PS to try to get the out of focus bokeh look. Once again you’ve caused me to reconsider a technique. Thanks for your input. I’m slowly getting to be a better shooter as a result of thinking about you guy’s input on my shots both as I’m shooting and in post-processing. Now as I’m shooting and processing my files I tend to think, “what would they say about this one if I were to post it on NPN?” and that causes me to strive for better shots. Ezackly what I’m on here for. Thanks for the guidance!
Quite an achievement, both the shooting and the post-processing, although for the latter I prefer ‘all natural’ images, hence no blending and stuff. But, you would never have been able to blend two images if you hadn’t been able to take this incredible flight shot ! Hats off ! Cheers, Hans
For me, this is about as good as it gets. Without taking a microscope to it, I couldn’t have guessed you had changed backgrounds. Meanwhile catching the swallow in flight brings out its best. Great detail and light, as meanwhile those spread wings say all there is to say about “swallow.” Lots more dynamic and representative than another swallow sitting on another wire.
Hank
I’m glad you like the “fake” shot. I just had to get rid of the original crumby background. T’was a great subject with a rotten background. I just couldn’t trash it. It deserved the work it took, I think.
Amen! You sure got that right.
These are sooo tough to catch in flight and you managed a really fine capture. Congrats!
Dave, I was out of town so never got around to commenting. Granted it takes a fair bit of luck to get something like this ranghe. But still, your crop and post-processing turned it into a really fine image. And you couldn’t ask for a more pleasing pose.
The swallow looks fantastic here Dave, it’s interesting to me I had the feeling the background was unnatural even though I hadn’t yet read your description, but I’m not sure why really.
Outstanding image. Excellent light, flight pose and detail in the swallow. So cool that you were able to salvage the image. I am going to have to improve my photo processing skills.
First of all it is quite a feat to catch one of these guys in flight with the level of detail you were able to acquire. The wing position, head position with a slight head turn and composition are an achievement. That said, the minute I looked at this I could tell it had a background transplant. It just doesn’t look right as Nate stated. You have a sharpening halo on the leading edge of the right wing and to some degree the head and the leading edge of the left wing. This is a dead giveaway of the background replacement. I’ve tried this but it just doesn’t work so I don’t do it anymore. There are always other opportunities for better images.
