65 Million Years of Evolution.

[HansE]

As seen on a river in Europe!

[David_MC]

Nice shot Hans. That background is quite lush.

[HansE]

And quite dense. You can see where they get the black forest from. Not a lot of light would penetrate through that lot.

[Isac]

Lovely peaceful scene Hans. Do you have a specific theme in mind for having it really dark?

[HansE]

As you can just see some early morning colour it was taken at barely sunup, It was that sort of atmosphere. The background was darker when I reduced the exposure a bit for the too bright swans was bought back with some shadow lift.

[Isac]

This type of image is the perfect reason for applying luminosity masks with a curves layer to target areas you want to adjust without affecting any other areas. With a luminosity mask, you can lift the darks and also reduse the highlights - best of both worlds to balance an image.

[HansE]

I'm happy with the way it is. It is how i envisaged it at the time. The camera would overexpose the image as the average was quite dark.

[wigz]

I like the effect with the white birds highlighted against the dark background and just a glimpse of the morning sunlight through the trees. It does look better against a dark background (by clicking on the image) instead of the white of the forum.

[HansE]

You are right Alan. I hadn't tried that. It would look quite nice on a dark wall.

[Isac]

You can select a "Dark" theme at the bottom left of our page.

[HansE]

The things you learn!