Red Kites

[AlfandBen]

Been away for a few days at a horse sale down in Wales. While we were there we visited the Red Kite feeding station at Llandeusant (Brecon). It was a dull day and feeding didn't start til about 3:00 so light was not very good. I should have taken the 70-200 not the 150-600 but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Here are a few pics. Not brilliant and there wasn't much to be done about the background but a great experience to see somewhere in the region of 100 of these superb birds in the air.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

G'day mate

Yes- the images against the bright sky are difficult to look at, but #3 & #4 are okay
Nice 'n sharp and good feather detail ... well done

Phil

[AlfandBen]

Cheers Phil. I hope to get another chance to see if I can do better, but probably not this year

[wigz]

Shame about the sky in #1 and #2 but you have managed to get some detail and colour in the birds in a challenging situation. Well done an capturing multiple birds in these shots focus.

#3 and #4 look good, although the bird tends to blend with the background in #4.

[AlfandBen]

Thanks Alan. I was very disappointed with the sky but there you go it is what it is. I just wanted to capture something of what we were seeing.

Agree of the 4 #3 is probably the best.

[David_MC]

That's a lot of Kites. The last two are my picks but that first one is nice showing how many of them are in the air.

[AlfandBen]

Thanks David, we sometimes get a dozen or so at home but nothing to compare with this. I think i have a long shot showing the mass of birds but it's a bit like seeing spots before the eyes.

[avkomp]

did well with these.
I prefer the 2 not lookup up to the sky.
doesnt overly bother me that the backgrounds look busy, enough oof to not be a major issue
good work

[AlfandBen]

Thanks Stephen and I quite agree on the sky. Maybe i will have to try to change it. Since the feeding area is mown and so close, it would be nice if they just tidied up the old fence and some of the old foliage a bit.

[Isac]

Great effort with a sky that's not perfect. Can you add in a better sky? One that is not so bright would do the trick - it can still be grey or overcast though, not a blue sky. Fairly easy to do in Affinity Photo
I did a quick shadows lift on #1 and those details and colours under the wings of the main bird are stunning,
Well done with these.

[AlfandBen]

Hi ISAC and thank you. Not sure about adding a sky, will have to look for a tutorial. It is slightly annoying that the images are close but just not quite there, but there is always another day.

[Isac]

I did a dull cloudy overcast sky replacement and brightened up the birds and it looks completely different. You'll have to give it a go.

[AlfandBen]

Found a tutorial and had a quick try, made a right hash of it, (I struggle with following instructions when jumping from one screen to another) but will try again when I have a decent sky to use as a replacement.

[Isac]

This is the sky that I used and here's the result.

I didn't need to use any sky replacement filter, I just placed the sky layer above the birds layer and used the "Blend If" adjustment in Photoshop. It's probably the best way to replace a bright or even blown out sky. In Affinity you would use the "Blend Ranges". Plenty of tutorials on that on Youtube.
This is the result.

[AlfandBen]

I have a real dislike of being forced into subscription for software.

[Ozzie_Traveller]

Isac -- how do you manage to isolate the birds / subject / without getting a halo around the feathers?
whenever I do this type of trickery, I always seem to get a halo

Phil

[Isac]

Hi Phil. I use Photoshop's 'Blend If" tool which allows you to blend tonal ranges of 2 layers. In this example, I placed the darker sky layer above the birds layer and then using the blend-if tool, revealed only the dark pixels from the underlying layer. This method produces no halos. There is an Elements plug in that you can install called Elements+ and it's cheap as.Slightly different from PS but still easy enough. https://simplephotoshop.com/buy_elements+.htm