One Osprey Pic, Two Choices

[sm4him]

This is from the same outing as the other Osprey thread I posted, but I thought I'd post this one separately for opinions on the cropping.

Same picture, done two different ways. Do you prefer:

1. Entire Osprey in frame, but shows the other Osprey behind, seemingly with a missing head:

May31_2557editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

OR

2. with the second Osprey cropped out, which means losing the tail and part of the wing:

May31_2557edit2web by sm4him, on Flickr

Or would you go even further with the crop? Don't want to lose TOO much of the wings, though. Or would you just call this one a miss and bin it?

 

[oldhippy]

Sharon, I'm the last person to advise on photoshop. but I've seen where you can get rid of the further bird with brush strokes .That would give the best pic yet. IMHO

 

[tirediron]

Of the two options, I definitely prefer #2, but looking at how plain and even the background is, have you given any thought to simply trying to remove the second bird digitally? It shouldn't be too difficult; a bit fiddly perhaps, but not too bad, and well worth it I think.

 

[cgipson1]

I overdid the tail a bit.. oops

 

[sm4him]

Sharon, I'm the last person to advise on photoshop. but I've seen where you can get rid of the further bird with brush strokes .That would give the best pic yet. IMHO

Of the two options, I definitely prefer #2, but looking at how plain and even the background is, have you given any thought to simply trying to remove the second bird digitally? It shouldn't be too difficult; a bit fiddly perhaps, but not too bad, and well worth it I think.

Seems to be a consensus on the idea of removing the bird in the back, a notion that briefly crossed my mind, but I dismissed it, because I've never removed anything that big and was afraid I'd make a big, blotchy mess of it.

I overdid the tail a bit.. oops
View attachment 46822

Now...tell me HOW you did THAT!!

 

[cgipson1]

Sharon, I'm the last person to advise on photoshop. but I've seen where you can get rid of the further bird with brush strokes .That would give the best pic yet. IMHO

Of the two options, I definitely prefer #2, but looking at how plain and even the background is, have you given any thought to simply trying to remove the second bird digitally? It shouldn't be too difficult; a bit fiddly perhaps, but not too bad, and well worth it I think.

Seems to be a consensus on the idea of removing the bird in the back, a notion that briefly crossed my mind, but I dismissed it, because I've never removed anything that big and was afraid I'd make a big, blotchy mess of it.

I overdid the tail a bit.. oops

Now...tell me HOW you did THAT!!

This was a quick and dirty.... I just used the clone tool (cloning sky) to remove anything that wasn't the bird I wanted.

I am not a photoshop guru.. so my methods may not be the most efficient or correct. I would take the Pencil tool.. and outline the bird you want to keep just at the edge of its feathers... This would allow you to keep sharp edges on it. Then I would start removing everything that is not what you want to keep. Then I would carefully fill in the blank area with sky (do a color sample or clone from the closest area that has sky). Then I would do a really light blur tool maybe 60 or 80 pixels wide... set to like 10% strength, and go over the edges on the areas you removed (to kill any jaggies).

Keith or some of the others could probably give you better suggestions.... my way is probably the hard way.

 

[SCraig]

You beat me to it Charlie. Clone brushes are wonderful things

 

[cenote]

Now just get rid of the stick in front of the legs...

 

[cgipson1]

Now just get rid of the stick in front of the legs...

That one?

 

[cenote]

That one?

This One

 

[cgipson1]

How is this?

 

[sm4him]

Okay, so Charlie beat me to it, because I'm very slow and plodding with the clone tool.

How does mine compare?

EDIT: I left a big, blurry mess on the left edge that I didn't notice till I uploaded it. Give me a minute (or five) to fix that and I'll upload again.

Okay, NOW. I think it looks "okay" on the screen, but if I zoom in much at all, there's still some streaking on the left where the bird was.


May31_2557editcloned by sm4him, on Flickr

 

[cenote]

How is this?

How about a worm in his mouth!

 

[cgipson1]

Okay, so Charlie beat me to it, because I'm very slow and plodding with the clone tool.

How does mine compare?

EDIT: I left a big, blurry mess on the left edge that I didn't notice till I uploaded it. Give me a minute (or five) to fix that and I'll upload again.

Okay, NOW. I think it looks "okay" on the screen, but if I zoom in much at all, there's still some streaking on the left where the bird was.


May31_2557editcloned by sm4him, on Flickr

Looks pretty good!

 

[cgipson1]

How is this?

How about a worm in his mouth!

I have to pass on that one... lol!