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This is another of the juvenile black shouldered kite pics I got on the weekend.

I have just been messing with photoshop making some actions which put the frame and name in the bottom.
Comments as to the effectiveness of the frame would be appreciated.
I have been of the opinion that a black frame seems to give the images more punch. wonder what others think??

(comment about the bird too by all means!!)

Steve

Well done Steve - this is a great capture
You've done very well with DOF, the eyes are crisp, and the face well exposed. Can I ask what lens was used? And was this bird in the wild?

The frame is ok, although when I look back on some of my earlier frames I feel the larger ones detract from the picture. I've recently gone for a simple black edge, about 5 pixels wide right around. You're right though, a good frame seems to help the image pop. This is especially so when you go as far as printing - the right border can make all the difference.

Avkomp, somebody mentioned about my 40px black border on NSN saying it was too distracting. However I prefer to see my nature photos with a black surround (preferably on a black website). I just find it brings out the color more for some reason.

Hi Steve,

very nice capture. Having tried my hand at getting bird shots in Africa and it's not easy, yours comes up beautifully. I'm also interested to know which lens you used.

As for the frame, it looks fine, I do something similar , but I find that your copyright notice detracts a bit from it. Use the copyright symbol instead of the word and maybe use a bit smaller font, but that's just MHO

Cheers,

Radar

Kipper:

I prefer to see my nature photos with a black surround (preferably on a black website). I just find it brings out the color more for some reason.

I have been musing over frame or no frame for ages, I have looked into just white, the raised mount with drop shadow etc, etc. I even put the same image on a page with different frames to see what I felt.
Now, it is probably a subjective thing without any basis in fact, but I felt that some sort of black frame, preferably with a black webpage background made the pictures stand out more.
Now, the issue is what size should the black be??
Currently this frame is a percentage thing with the white bead being 1 percent larger than the main image and the black 10 percent larger than that.

The thing though is that when you post a shot to the web for others to hopefully enjoy, you would wish to present it in a way which pleases most people. For internal use, I believe some sort of black border will stay but if everyone despises black, it would be better to change it.

Radar: whoops forgot to post equipment details for this shot, it was late last night after I had finished playing photoshop actions 101.
This was taken with the d70, nikkor 80-400vr @ 400mm, handheld and standing. Metz 60ct1 flash for some fill @ -1ev
and I agree with the copyright thingy, I really want to just use the c thingy
but by the time I finished the border thingy, I couldnt figure it out.
Anyone know how to produce the c (copyright) thingy??

Steve

avkomp wrote:and I agree with the copyright thingy, I really want to just use the c thingy
but by the time I finished the border thingy, I couldnt figure it out.
Anyone know how to produce the c (copyright) thingy??

Steve

Assuming that you are using Windows, you can use the Alt key codes, while pressing the Alt key, type 0169 on the numeric-keypad.

More info on all codes here:
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/accents/codealt.html

Also thanks for the shooting details.

HTH,

Radar

Sorry Sheepie, I forgot to post the answers to your queries,

As noted earlier the lens was the 80-400vr @400

This bird is in the wild, I go out trying to photograph birds as a change for working on computers. It took me a couple of hours to get the photos of the blue wren I posted on the weekend
see http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=9615
and
http://www.d70users.com/viewtopic.php?t=9628
and was walking away when this Juvenile
landed on the same perch I had been targeting for the wrens. I was forced to turn around and head back and this was as close as I could get. This shot is around 1/3 frame. It flew off as I tried to get back to where I had been hiding for the wren shots ( that would have been around 3 metres) and I would have been able to use less than 400mm and still have full frame. I was amazed at the job vr did in this case because I was walking and perhaps a tad excited to see this guy and I am sure the breathing and heart rate would have been up. Normally this would not lead to sharp shots but Mr VR saved me!!
Steve

Rader:

Assuming that you are using Windows, you can use the Alt key codes, while pressing the Alt key, type 0169 on the numeric-keypad.

Thanks for this, will give it a blast later on

Steve

forgot to mention, you also need the Num-Lock ON.

Went to look at your wren shots, great ones there too, missed those as I was away.

Cheers,

Radar

Very nice shot, Steve.

As to the frame, I neither like nor dislike most of them, depending on how fancy they are and whether or not I think they distract the eye from the image.

I agree about the relative fanciness of the frame,
I think it needs to be plain, afterall the photo is supposed to be the work of art and not the frame around it. I have seen plenty of frames, borders etc which look artistic in their own right but you finish up admiring the frame instead of its contents.

I think a dark border and indeed a dark page means that the image on the page will be the brightest object on the screen and therefore draw the eye to it.

Tried radars tip on the c. sign but it doesnt work on my notebook. Will try it on my main pc later. It would appear to require a separate numerical keypad and num lock on.

It may turn out that I dont bother putting a sig. on the pic anyhow. This itself may be regarded as a distraction. I know it is widely used but I can take it or leave it.
Perhaps if I peddled an image it would be more of a concern, but these days I have no desire ever to work professionally again, especially photographing people.

Steve
Steve

Hi Steve,

I like the black border and agree it seems to make the picture stand out. Not sure about the different thickness at the top and sides though.

Another way of getting the copyright symbol is to open MS Word, type CTRL + ALT C then cut and paste into the other application (ie Photoshop)

Moo

mr moo: That cut and paste idea in word did occur to me but I havent bothered yet. I only tried to make the copyright thing on my notebook so far. Confidence is high that it will work if I do it on one of the main workstations.

As for the boder being thicker on sides, not sure what happened there yet because I wrote the action to put the frame on as a percentage of image size instead of a certain number of pixels. It seemed to me at the time that it would be a generic action to work on an image of any size.

Time will resolve any issues I have with it.

Steve

mr moo: As I posted reply to your comments, the reason this happened became obvious. I used a percentage frame for x and y, so obviously I would
get bigger frame on the long axis.
So I could perhaps modify the percentage used on the long axis to bring things into proportion OR more likely, just leave it because I am a lazy lazy man.

Steve

Just tested Radars info with the alt 0169 on the keypad and can confirm that it works © just like a bought one.

Steve

bloody nice pic mate.

my poor wife isnt going to hear the end of my wanting the VR lenses now. hehe

avkomp wrote:This was taken with the d70, nikkor 80-400vr @ 400mm, handheld and standing.

Fantastic. Can't wait for my 80-400 to arrive

Frame - I'd be inclined to try a sans serif font in say 15-20% grey for your copyright notice. It may lessen the distraction away from the image to the text.

Image generally: I really like this. Good isolation of the subject with appropriate DOF and a non-busy background.