Mary's Dawn Rabbit

[Mary Bull]

Here are two views of an Eastern Cottontail (rabbit), which I have taken from a set of 5 frames that I shot with the Canon G2, RAW, on the morning of September 8, 2006.

In the first, I am looking down my driveway, where I was lucky to spot him, sitting so still under the crabapple tree.

I cropped the image to try to put the focus better on the bunny, and also downsized it considerably, to meet Village Photo's upload size limitations. I would have taken more of the driveway out of the foreground, but when I did that, much of the sense of the eastern horizon down the intersecting street (where the SUV is parked) seemed lost to me.

A great amount of the appeal to me in the shot, when I saw it on my monitor screen, was the haze that veils the light of the just-risen sun. I wanted to keep a perspective of distance, looking past the rabbit, as much as I could.

Dawn Rabbit

In the second image here, I have cropped him out of the fourth frame. (The G2 did not have time to register him in frame 5--I had entered his flight distance and he was gone like a flash.)

Let me know what you think, everyone who wishes to, please.

Mary

 

[Mary Bull]

I've been looking at the original RAW file some more, and I think this crop may better express the inner vision which I'm trying to achieve.

@Asher: I sent the original RAW file to you the other day as an e-mail attachment. Would there be a place for it in the Retouch, Repair forum?

My latest cropping preference:

First Light with Rabbit

 

[Dierk Haasis]

Cropping out the blown out sky, enhancing contrast a bit, making the connection between nature and nurture [rabbit vs. van] (hopefully):

 

[Mary Bull]

Oh, thank you, Dierk!

Yes, that's nearer to what I wanted to show.

Mary

 

[Asher Kelman]

Someone clone out the car, please!

Asher

 

[Mary Bull]

Asher, I just don't have the skills yet.

But I've been playing with this very large photo for a week, now.
And I'm wondering whether the image even has my vision within it.
The mind's memory eye has the misty white light and the rabbit beside the red hue that light made on the driveway, and nothing else.

It's astonishing that in the original TIFF the bricks on the wall of my sister's house next door are clearly recorded. I didn't even notice them at the time I shot this series of 5 frames. They were the first thing that I cropped out.

Mary

 

[Dierk Haasis]

Someone clone out the car, please!

Why?

This is only in here because otherwise I cannot post since a four-letter message does not meet the 10 character limit.

 

[Mary Bull]

Why?

Dierk, I liked your concept of "nature vs. nurture" very much. It was one of the ideas I was experiencing when I took the shot--sort of, the countryside in a city setting.

And I liked the way your cropping and enhancing put the focus on that point of view. Plus, pictorially, I think it's a much better image after your work on it.

When I first saw the TIFF on my monitor, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," from Kenneth Grahame's *The Wind in the Willows* came into my head. Brought a sort of fantasy world, where the misty light and the alertly frozen rabbit were viewed alone.

But, this fantasy is sharpened by staying with reality and keeping the van in the picture. I think it works particularly well because the van participates in the white light.

However, I've spent the last hour trying to clone it out--merely as an exercise.

No matter how much I study the Help file of LightZone, I cannot seem to be able to copy and paste the regions I draw. I'm pretty much worn out with it now--but determined to go back and try again later. If not with this image, then with another in my collection. I simply want to master the tool.

Meanwhile, I think that, with your help, I have "First Light" just where I want it to be.

So, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Mary

 

[Dierk Haasis]

Cloning with LZ:

1. Choose the clone tool
2. Choose a region tool
3. Draw a region around the area you want to clone out
4. Move the crosshairs around until you find an appropriate source
5. Hide the region
6. Tweak the crosshair and feathering boundary until everything fits well
7. Use blending modes and opacity slider until everything looks smooth.

 

[Mary Bull]

Thank you very much!

I think it was the "hide the region" step which I was missing.

Off to practice.

Mary

 

[Dierk Haasis]

That step is only to see how ell the source fits into the target.

PS: Cloning out the van is one of the more difficult cloning tasks; Asher, why don't you do it?

 

[Mary Bull]

Dierk, I had to go out for awhile, before I had a chance to practice much.

I'm going to practice on a simpler image, with a large rectangular object in it.

I am satisfied with my "First Light" image as it is now, after your re-work.

If Asher would like to put the original RAW file into the Retouch, Repair forum as a project, I would be pleased for him to do that. I sent it to him PM e-mail attachment the evening after I made the shots.

Thanks a million for all your guidance, Dierk.

Mary

 

[Mary Bull]

LightZone: learning cloning tool use

At last, I have made a permanent cloning change in an image, using LightZone.

Exported the image and the change still shows.

It's a mess, but at least I now have a handle on how to clone and get my clone choices applied and saved. So I think another hour or so will make me proficient enough to clone--in large, simple areas, at least.

This is only a progress report.

Mary