A friend gave me a terrific link: www.cherylmedow.com/envisioninghabitat/ to a gallery of amzing bird photos taken with a 500mm lens and then placed on a background taken with a wide angled lens to give more of a sense of the environment. It gave me some ideas and this is my first attempt. The hawk flew overhead at home in a perfectly blue sky while I was photographing hummers. I placed him on a background layer of a landscape shot I took in the Eastern Sierras. I tweaked the WB and lighting a bit and wonder if it works to look realistic?
Thanks for your visits, comments, suggestions, favs
A GREAT tribute to Medow's work. I thought her work was amazing and this is quite an homage to her. What you've done works well and in her style -- a context that we could find the bird in, but done in a way that creates a sense of magical realism, rather than documentation. I like the way the small fenceposts and the golden light reflect the same color tones as the bird. It's a beautiful context to support, add to, and not distract from the hawk. Fav!
Well, I like the idea. I think for this to work for me the angle that the bird is shot at and the background should be closer to the same angle. To me it looks a bit weird, as if the hawk was flying toward you and then flared, to fly straight up. I think it would a bit better if the hawk was flying toward you.
He looks a little big in the scene, with the ground looking close. I also see a bit of haloing on the bottom of the bird when seen big. But for your fist attempt I think it's amazing. Keep working at it. Good enough for a fav.
The hawk looks like it is showing off it's belly to you, which I find a little unusual in this kind of bird. But the background it lovely. Perhaps the angle of the bird needs to be slightly different?
Great capture and really well done with the combining of the two. Agree with some of the others, the angle of the Hawk just has a strange look to it, but the more you look at it, it all blends in very well.
A really clever edit! Its rather beautiful!
I agree with the other comments, it does look like an odd angle for the bird. I think it would work better with a different angle perhaps. All in all it is a neat editing idea and it blended well.
So glad I returned to this shot. I now understand the method. As a first attempt...you should be proud of yourself. The landscape is stunning and the hummer well captured. If I had any idea how to use photoshop, I might even give it ago myself.
I agree with the other comments, it does look like an odd angle for the bird. I think it would work better with a different angle perhaps. All in all it is a neat editing idea and it blended well.