BIF Seagulls. Bird Action Pano

[Nicks Pics]

Hello folks,

I have wanted to attempt an action bird panorama, and also wanted to shoot some BIF, so now that I found some birds in flight to work on (over the grocery store parking lot) I can do both. My mentality for these is to combine a contiguous background just like a panorama, and show the bird traveling across it in stages of motion, showing flight pattern, using rapid shooting. I'm sure there are different ways you could do this, but what I did is I aligned a semi transparent layer, one shot, over the previous one using the clouds for guidance, and then erased most of the overlapping areas of the frame revealing the bird in the previous frame, using layer masks. I had to add a little canvas in a couple corners of the second one (first version) because of the way the frames went together. I'm interested in any suggestions to perfect my method of combining the frames, or tips on BIF shooting, and also preferences about which crop you like of the latter image. Feel free to point out IQ critique, but these are kind of rough anyway, taken with my Fuji superzoom, first: 1/800 f6.5, iso 400. 2nd: 1/800, iso 250, f6. Thanks for looking

[NorthernFocus]

I've done something similar previously. It's a valid technique to show dynamics of flight. Looks pretty good until you get to the bird overlapping itself. The cloning becomes obvious due to the bordering pixels of sky around wing tip etc. You also started losing focus on the last couple of frames. But overall pretty well done.

[Rebel]

The first one looks pretty good, but I the overlapping birds don't work for me.

[Nicks Pics]

Thank you Dan,
I haven't seen a lot of images of this type, but in fact one of them might have been an eagle in your galleries online, if I remember correctly. I didn't notice the focus issue, ought to use focus tracking, something to learn about another day. I wasn't sure about the overlapping, I thought maybe it made a 3D affect, but agreed I should have used a narrower selection feathering as that was the method I used.

[Nicks Pics]

Thank you Matt, that's okay, I guess the overlapping birds don't work very well overall, I think it could, but only if the frames lined up ideally.

[Shadowman]

Cool!

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks John!

[Brownbear]

Hi Nick,

Dan's given you wonderful feedback. That said I think you did a wonderful job for a first try. It's not so easy to do, and something I'm still trying to learn to do well.

The first is my fave, and the 2nd gull in that image my fave for the wing position.

[Otavio]

Very nice, Nick. I agree with Dan's feedback too, but still you've acomplished your goal. Looking forward to see your next tries!. Cheers,

[Nicks Pics]

Hi Christina, That is one of my favorite frames too. I really haven't taken many BIF shots, so I need to work on that using continuous focus so I don't get out-of-focus frames which Dan pointed out. I recall your bird panorama threads from a while ago, I thought that was such a neat idea. Thank you!

Thank you Otavio, thanks for your encouragement, I hope there will be next tries in the future, perhaps with something more interesting than a parking lot bum seagull I'm considering these rough experiments for now.

[Nicks Pics]

Just a general note, I'm not trying to pull these off as three different images here, of course, I just posted two versions of the second to give two options on the crop. First because it is more spacious and includes the top of the first cloud, and second because to concentrate on the action more, but it ain't really important

[John 2]

You've got to try these things Nick and this is a pretty good result.

[IzzieK]

Very good first try...I guess you can try your backyard too, not just the parking lot. I like #1 too if that means anything...I think it is neat.

[chauncey]

For a first attempt, those aren't bad, next time...use a faster SS, over 1/1000, will help with the
detail in the bird. Keep an odd number of birds in a frame for better balance. You don't need a large
f/stop number if you have an adequate focusing system. See my link as an example.

[Nicks Pics]

John, thanks for the comments

Izzie, I do appreciate your response, I think it would be hard to get more than one shot of a titmouse or chickadee, such a bird as might be in the backyard, in flight in a row, but that would be neat if I could!

Thanks Chauncey, I think placing an odd number of birds in the scene might somehow make it look more natural, I didn't think of that. Have you ever done one of these before? I know, a lot of people shoot at 1/3200 ss, or something like that, but sometimes less. Probably in my case a little faster ss would have helped.

[bnnrcn]

Nice set of good work I especially like #1 .

[Nicks Pics]

Thanks Binnur! Very encouraging.

[Loose Canon]

Hello Nick!

These look good and you got some great comments on them.

In case it comes up as I make a comment I’ve shot a few of this type of pano. Pretty fun and pretty fun to produce in post!



As a huge composite fan I think you’ve done well with these. An already difficult genre which makes your comps even cooler! I guess the suggestion I would offer from my experience compositing would be that when you do this you really have to get down to editing at the pixel level (as in cloning, blending, background, etc.) to really make it look accurate.

To get down and dirty at this level is tedious, boring, mind numbing, and time consuming, but the results can be stunning! I have the attention span of a fly and sometimes my composite edits take a couple three days or even way more! And at that I just have to call it over because my feeble brain is paralyzed!

Your compositing looks pretty cool, just as mentioned a little bit of focus issue with a couple of frames with the birds which I think could be mitigated with some portrait style retouching. But my hat is off for choosing to do this with an already difficult subject (BIF).

An endeavor very well worth pursuing Nick and yours are a total success.

[Nicks Pics]

Hi Terry! Thanks for your great response. I wonder if it would have been harder if I had done it with a more complicated background like the snow in your image. The clouds worked well to mask the imperfections, but I really didn't do much cloning, I just overlapped the images and then erased some of the above layer to reveal some of the layer behind, using layer masks, as well as a little use of draw selection and cloning to fill in the corners on the second image. Basically I had developed the images in Lightroom using sync mode, (with individual adjustments as necessary) for general WB etc. then put them together in gimp and then sharpened. (Basing this on the routine creating the second one, the first may have been a little simpler) Thanks again for the response!