Silhouette Sunrise - first composite C&C

[BrentC]

The sunrise was taken with my 300mm. Very little processing on it, the colours are as is. I thought it would good with a silhouette of birds. Also it was good practice to learn more techniques. I took another photo I had of a group of mallards, masked them out and reduced exposure.

Does this work? I was not sure how to position the birds but felt this worked well. The only issue I have is that, to me, it looks like a composite. It looks like the birds were just added. Is there something I can do to make it look more natural?

Silhouette sunrise by Brent Cameron, on Flickr

 

[kap55]

Very very nice.

Edit - at first I questioned whether it was a composite or not - could have gone either way - so what you did worked.

 

[BrentC]

Very very nice.

Thanks. Here is another edit with different placement and tighter crop.


silhouette Sunrise by Brent Cameron, on Flickr

 

[BrentC]

The more I look at the two the more I'm liking the first.

 

[Designer]

Yes, it looks like a composite. Not bad, just not true to life, if that matters to anyone.

The brightness of the clouds does not correlate with the brightness of the sun.
The sun and the ducks were not shot with the same focal length lens. Sun way too big compared to ducks.
The attack angle of the ducks looks off. (Off level.) Don't they usually fly more level?

But for a composite, I prefer the second version based on the position of the ducks relative to the sun.

Do you have one where the sun isn't dead center?

 

[BrentC]

Yes, it looks like a composite. Not bad, just not true to life, if that matters to anyone.

The brightness of the clouds does not correlate with the brightness of the sun.
The sun and the ducks were not shot with the same focal length lens. Sun way too big compared to ducks.
The attack angle of the ducks looks off. (Off level.) Don't they usually fly more level?

But for a composite, I prefer the second version based on the position of the ducks relative to the sun.

Do you have one where the sun isn't dead center?

Actually they were both shot with the same lens. I had to resize the image of the ducks and wasn't sure how small or large I should make them.

My camera settings were still in bird mode and I shot direct at the sun with spot metering. So yes the clouds appear darker but I thought it gave it a very cool look. I'll take a look at it with more exposure to see how it looks.

These ducks were taken as they were taken off so they are still rising up higher. Angle is correct.

I tried a couple crops with the sun off centre but didn't look quite right. Do you have a suggestion?

 

[SquarePeg]

I really like the first one. I would not have immediately thought composite. Maybe a more experienced photographer would know but most people would not, IMO.

 

[BrentC]

I really like the first one. I would not have immediately thought composite. Maybe a more experienced photographer would know but most people would not, IMO.

Thank you. I have spent a little more time editing, (exposure levels, crop, duck size and placement) but have yet to come up with something I like better than the first one.

 

[Designer]

Do you have a suggestion?

This is not the end all version, but I just used your second post and re-cropped it to this: