Attempt at combining bird photographs

[TonyW]

I was inspired by Christina's series on combinations of bird images to have a go. I can't match the quality of her pictures of birds, especially in flight, but I could not resist this attempt. Covering up the joins in the ripples also is not so difficult in this case - I just used a bit of simple cloning over the joins.


Prepare for landing - lower undercarriage - deploy full flaps:


056A5425com by tonyw36, on Flickr

[Shadowman]

Nice image, although the angle makes it look like three different birds.

[IzzieK]

Not shabby at all for a first try, Tony....keep at it. I like it.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Tony, good trial I would crop the image from top just to leave the reflections in the frame , IMo that would give a better look.

[Brownbear]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for sharing. Good effort but I do believe I can see hints of your cloning/joining (around & between the 1st/2nd pelican/ below the 2nd/ 3rd pelican, and around the wings and just below the 3rd pelican? I also think that the pelican's movement direction would be in a more vertical fashion? (ie, less spread out horizontally)

Not that I could do any better. I'm still trying to figure out how to do it well, and I'm going to move onto an image without so many ripples in the water.

[TonyW]

Thanks for all the comments.

I have made another version. It is still not perfect but I don't think the original images are good enough to warrant a lot more work. This is really just an exercise for me.

This time I have put them in their original relationship with each other. The angle between the first (i.e. the one on the right) and the second looks strange but that is how they were. The times between the shots were 1 and 2 seconds and there was no adjustment to the camera settings in between.

I have done things a bit differently and there is much less cloning. I can see some evidence of the joins but I think it is hard to see. I would probably crop more at the top and right for a final version.

056A5425(3) by tonyw36, on Flickr

Christina, I did look at your earlier threads but did not comment at the time because I was distracted by non-photography things.

[Brownbear]

Hi Tony,

Thank you for sharing. No doubt your efforts will help me when I'm ready to tackle my bird combo, and hopefully you too when you try another image. I've given up on the ripples so I will try it on another series and perhaps post it in a new thread (on topic).