DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register) 
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
Mourning
Mourning
MaryO


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Darkness II (Advanced Editing VII*)
Collection: Birds
Camera: Nikon D200
Lens: Sigma 100-300mm f/4.0 EX IF HSM for Nikon
Location: Springfield, VA
Date: May 5, 2009
Aperture: f/4
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/500
Galleries: Emotive, Birds
Date Uploaded: May 5, 2009

 For some reason I was really drawn to do a dark entry instead of a light one this week. Could be the unending rain!

This is a Mourning Dove on my deck railing. Late afternoon, and yes, raining. The background was actually green but I shifted it to blue for a moodier image.

PP - converted from RAW, cropped a bit, white balance, 2nd layer (Gaussian blur, merged in multiply mode), dodged dove's eye and a little of her underside, colored greenish reflections on her brown/peachy, 3rd layer (shifted hue into blues, erased dove from that layer, merged), decreased gamma and increased contrast, desaturated deck railing a bit, touched up background, resized, sharpened with noise reduction, hand sharpened a fuzzy bit.

Statistics
Place: 100 out of 125
Avg (all users): 4.6477
Avg (commenters): 6.0000
Avg (participants): 4.3333
Avg (non-participants): 4.7517
Views since voting: 1019
Views during voting: 315
Votes: 193
Comments: 5
Favorites: 1 (view)

Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
Nikon D3s
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
 05/13/2009 04:25:05 AM
This is so under rated!!..lovely image. Congrats from one of your twelve 7's.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-40D
Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Canon
 05/12/2009 09:11:28 PM
Good lighting and background. Subject looks a little OOF to me.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Olympus E-520
Vivitar MF Zoom 19-35mm f/3.5-4.5 Series 1 for Olympus
 05/07/2009 08:09:49 PM
The soft focus and lack of precise detail hurt this image which would have been a very natural entry into the challenge. A little more precision would have made this a naturalists dream as the expression on the dove is very complimentary to the nature of the challenge.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon
 05/06/2009 09:51:50 AM
Love the background. I think this is one that needs to be turned to make the line level (the sill upon which he's sitting).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-5D Mark II
Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
 05/06/2009 01:27:42 AM
i love the blue light but i wish it were a little sharper
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Theme: Classic / Light / Dark
Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2026 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 10/14/2026 04:00:00 PM EDT.