City - Lethbridge State - ALBERTA Country - Canada
About
Like angry teenagers with attitude, young Merlins terrorize urban neighborhoods across the Canadian prairies. This one is an unseasoned newborn, who hasn't yet learned wary behavior. As well as songbirds, they eat their share of dragonflies and insects. But the real impact is their angry call. Notice the notched beak, characteristic of falcons, designed to break a neck with one bite.
Thankyou, Kim. I haven't been here for a while, and didn't notice your comments. Indeed, what limited my interest in replacing color was inexperience with photoshop, and the fact that my previous attempts looked fake because of spill onto adjacent areas. This effort is a lot better than I have had in the past, and I'll try using it one day. Cheers.
Hi Dave! I tried playing with it photoshop... I used the REPLACE COLOUR tool and made the creams blue. Then I took the history brush tool and ran it over the feathers again, to bring back the colour. I'm trying to learn a little more about photoshop, and to use what I learn so I don't forget it.
Thank you, Kim. I don't like the background either. It is actually better in the original, but the shot was underexposed so I had to boost exposure to get accurate detail in the subject. The bird was in the shade so I also intentionally overexposed since I knew my lightmeter would try to make the subject too dark. I did try to move a little but I knew he would be spooked as I moved around.
I admire those guys who can drop in a better background, as whenever I try that it looks fake because of the tricky edges.
Such sharpness and detail! It's too bad about the faded yellow background... it makes this amazing capture not stand out as much as it should. Once opened to full size its' very impressive. Next time there is a blue sky you should go Merlin hunting again!