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is this normal? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter searobin
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B Lagopus
Voler
It is like the site name says -- digital art. That is, taking photoshop and turning photos into art, with liberal doses of photo editing.
Which is obviously what has been done here, even the water shows signs of painting with light technique, likely in a blue layer. They could have just painted on the flourescent colors, but looking at the details, my guess is that the artist used a technique along the lines of creating a saturation layer, cranking it up to 100%, masking, and then used brush strokes of varying opacity on the masking layer to selectively bring out the colors without looking like they were painted on.
Edited to add the image below is something I threw together in a couple of minutes (using sloppy technique) to illustrate my point, the linked artist obviously spend a lot more time with it.
Which is obviously what has been done here, even the water shows signs of painting with light technique, likely in a blue layer. They could have just painted on the flourescent colors, but looking at the details, my guess is that the artist used a technique along the lines of creating a saturation layer, cranking it up to 100%, masking, and then used brush strokes of varying opacity on the masking layer to selectively bring out the colors without looking like they were painted on.
Edited to add the image below is something I threw together in a couple of minutes (using sloppy technique) to illustrate my point, the linked artist obviously spend a lot more time with it.
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marklhawkes
Well-known member
B Lagopus said:
I disagree. This bird is heavily worn, with massive feather damage. The colours are probably staining, may be obtained on a land-fill site or some other area where paints/chemicals occur. I have seen a pink stained Black-headed Gull and a blue stained Common Gull in Cambs in the last few years, both were stuggeling to clean their feathers, and were worn looking. These chemicals have cleared prevented the bird from preening, and its feathers are now very damaged.
When birds are stained for research, it is done using a non-harmful colour agent, and done in a neat area on all birds (i.e. Herrings gulls in Berkshire, UK were colour stained yellow on there head/breast - we recorded a few in Cambs in 2004).
Hope this helps
tittletattler
Well-known member
marklhawkes said:
I think some colour has been added to the underparts and the wing coverts at least.
Is this bird a Yellow Legged Gull (worn 1st winter?)
B Lagopus
Voler
marklhawkes said:
With all due respect, may I assume that you have little or no experience with recreational photo retouching? I do, and let me assure you, just the tone and appearance of the water is a dead giveaway. If go to the creator's gallery at digiart, you will see that he or she has been experimenting with flares of color in selected areas for artistic effect in multiple ways, sometimes against sepia, and sometimes against more natural tones.
Did they add fluorescent blue paint to the water behind the gull,too? Did the gull wade through radioactive red paint to give its legs that color? How about the patterns of pink dots on the wing coverts, and the way the feather edges and chevrons are carefully traced in fluorescent green? Fascinating "natural" effects, and how the splattering of the chemicals randomly happened to exactly trace selected plumage patterns, eh?
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marklhawkes
Well-known member
B Lagopus said:With all due respect, may I assume that you have little or no experience with recreational photo retouching? I do, and let me assure you, just the tone and appearance of the water is a dead giveaway. If go to the creator's gallery at digiart, you will see that he or she has been experimenting with flares of color in selected areas for artistic effect in multiple ways, sometimes against sepia, and sometimes against more natural tones.
Did they add fluorescent blue paint to the water behind the gull,too? Did the gull wade through radioactive red paint to give its legs that color? How about the patterns of pink dots on the wing coverts, and the way the feather edges and chevrons are carefully traced in fluorescent green? Fascinating "natural" effects, and how the splattering of the chemicals randomly happened to exactly trace selected plumage patterns, eh?
So, it's just coincidence that this bird has terribly damaged feathers? often caused by chemicals of some sort.
The water doesn't look that strange to me, and could be a trick of light during photography. If flares have been used, then why does the "concrete" look normal?
Aren't those legs actually pink? Much like most immature gulls (brown primaries suggesting bird is an immature), either large or small species. I wouldn't like to ID the species though Andrew
Oh, and I had a look at a lot of the other photos on the site (just click the left or right arrows above) and these don't appear to have been "played" with.
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