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Landing Lights

© Gunther Allen

Landing Lights

Uploaded: April 05, 2004 00:40:31

Description

aperture f 4.8, shutter 1/60, lens - 120 mm, location- San Diego. The eyes were so dominant in the shot that I decided to take the rest of the picture's color away. I did use a duatone to give a deep sepia tone and reintroduced the yellow eyes back into the composition. The eyes seemed like landing lights - therefore the title...

Comments

Donna W. Neal April 05, 2004

Outstanding capture and darkroom work!
Love this one Gunther! #114344

Joy Brown April 05, 2004

Absolutely awesome, Gunther! #464128

Marie Fields April 05, 2004

Terrific image! Love the selective coloring! #464131

Murry Grigsby April 05, 2004

Great job Gunther!! The eyes really dominate your design but the felling of action is powerful also! Terrific catch and PS work. #464427

Gunther Allen April 05, 2004

Thank you for the comment Murry, Marie, Joy, and Donna. I guess I spent hours trying to select the photo that best captured the essence of this owl. Listening to the trainer describe how great of a hunter the owl is, and how they have the best ratio of kills for a bird of prey compared to other hawks and eagles for example- made me want to try to catch how the owl would swoop down on it's victims. Although the trainer is actually still holding the bird here. He lifted his arm, held out some meat, and then dropped it to simulate how the owl would take off with concentrated determination and will.

It seemed fitting to accentuate the fixed attention of prey to victim. -G #464540

Robin L. Wehrman April 05, 2004

WOW, this is outstanding, excellent detail and closeup. well done Gunther!!!!!!!!!! #464696

Viveca Venegas level-classic April 05, 2004

Caramba!!this is a real marvelous austanding shot. Bravisimo!! Viveca. #464752

Gunther Allen April 05, 2004

Well thank you Robin and Viveca. You make it worth my efforts! :-) If I may ask you what in this shot attracted you the most? Is it the actual capture of the owl, or the manipulation of the sepia tone and the reintroduciton of the yellow eyes? So you think it would have been as affective as just a color shot? #464757

Michael Wehrman level-deluxe April 05, 2004

Great job Gunther #464856

Viveca Venegas level-classic April 05, 2004

Gunther, it is my opinion that it would not have the same effect in color. I love the sepia and the way you manage to capture the owl itself. I myself have encoutered four times this amazing birds with camera in hand, and have not been even half fast to capture it. Viveca. #464864

Larry D. Jackson April 06, 2004

Gunther,great work.
Larry Jackson #466261

Gunther Allen April 06, 2004

Thank you Larry for your recent comments on both my owl pictures. I find them fascinating and love taking pictures of the bird of prey! -G #466427

Paula Showen April 06, 2004

Gunther, what an amazing capture and beautiful manipulation! I love the way you made the eyes stand out! Outstanding image! #466851

Deborah Sandidge April 13, 2004

This has to be my favorite photo! I think the sepia really sets it apart and brings all the attention to his eyes - very dynamic! I'd love to learn the duotone effect. Fantastic image! #481294

Marie Fields May 13, 2004

Congratulations, Gunther!!! #536330

Nancy Grace Chen May 13, 2004

Really incredible capture. Captivating. Congratulations on your finalist.

Nancy
nance.c@poboxes.com
nacespace.com/photos #536358

Viveca Venegas level-classic May 14, 2004

Hey1 good luck with the coming prizes, this one can make it. Viveca. #538434

Robin L. Wehrman May 14, 2004

Congratulations again Gunther, this is Outstanding!! #538699

Gunther Allen May 14, 2004

Hi Deborah Sandidge,
In response to your request I'm posting this for everyone to see and use. The duoatone effect was achieved using Photoshop and if you follow these simple steps you'll find it quite easy to do. First of all once you've opened a photo, make sure you're on a the top layer in your layer's palette > go to the Image tab and select the drop down menu and you'll see the mode tab > select the the grayscale command and you'll get a box that tells you that all the layers will be flattened into one. Make sure that you've saved a copy of the exact size and resolution, which you will use in a minute. After you've turned the photo into a basic black and white > you now go back into the Image tab > Mode> and select duotone > pick the two colors that will give you the sepia quality. Usually I pick black and a brownish tint. I often use Trumatch 8-b. Click OK and you have your sepia toned photo. You will now need to adjust the contrast in your Image> Adjustments > levels or curves command. Now to re-introduce color back to your photo you need to select the area in the copy that you made and make a copy of the selection. All you do is paste it back into the sepia/manipulated version. But, there is a trick! You must make sure that you've changed the Image> Mode > back to RGB mode in order for the color to be re-introduced. That's really all there is to it! Sounds more complicated than it really is. If I showed it to you on the computer you'd catch on in a second. E-mail me directly if you have any problems! - Thanks Gunther #538906

Kelly Abernathy level-classic May 14, 2004

Still love it! Congratulations! -K #539362

Deborah Sandidge May 14, 2004

Congratulations Gunther!
Thank you very much for taking time to respond regarding the duatone manipulation in Photoshop! I really appreciate it, and will keep your notes handy. I'm anxious to give it a try. Your owl image is quite the inspiration!
Thanks again! ~ Deb #540190

Jill Battaglia May 14, 2004

Awesome! I love what you did to this!! Congrats!! #540196

Leanne M.E. Boyd May 16, 2004

I'm going to quote Jill "AWESOME" #543692

Gunther Allen May 16, 2004

Thank you Leanne and Jill for such an AWESOME review! Again thanks to K.S., and Deborah- I hope you have fun trying this technique! -G #543808

Cathy Barrows May 19, 2004

Congrats on your win! #549717

Claudia Kuhn level-classic May 19, 2004

Nice one Gunther! Congrats on your win! #549747

Donna W. Neal May 19, 2004

Congratulations on your WIN Gunther !! #549763

clifton Mair May 19, 2004

Great work, congrats! #549924

Leanne M.E. Boyd May 19, 2004

Big "Cs" go out to you Gunther!!!! #549925

Ronald Balthazor May 19, 2004

Congratulations, Gunther. #549926

Deborah Sandidge May 19, 2004

Congratulations, Gunther! #549950

Murry Grigsby May 19, 2004

Congratulations on your win Gunter!! #549971

Karen Engelbreth May 19, 2004

Congratulations, Gunther! #550008

Kelly Abernathy level-classic May 19, 2004

This was one of my favorites - congrats on a well deserved win! -K #550083

Susan T. Parady May 19, 2004

Congratulations, Gunther, and it was very nice of you to share your technique! #550162

Paula Showen May 19, 2004

Gunther, this is a fantastic capture! I love it!!! Congratulations, you sure earned it!!!! #550163

Darren K. Fisher May 19, 2004

Way to go Gunther very well deserved. #550253

Colette M. Metcalf May 19, 2004

Congratulations!!! #550281

Diane Dupuis May 19, 2004

Congratulations Gunther! Great shot! #550388

Gene Spears May 19, 2004

congratulations, Gunther - excellent image!! #550510

Monika Sapek May 19, 2004

Super work, Gunther! Many congratulations on your Second Place!
Monika
#550625

Donna La Mattino Pagakis May 19, 2004

Remarkable image. The sepia did the trick. Lovely representation Gunther. Thanks for the sepia advice. Take care and CONGRATULATIONS..............

Donna P. #550710

Evy Johansen level-classic May 19, 2004

Many congratulations on your win, Gunther! Well deserved! Beautiful image! #550777

Lori Ditlefsen May 20, 2004

Man Gunther, this is awesome! I missed it but it sure is wonderful. Congrats on the win! #551589

Allan L. Whitehead May 20, 2004

Gunther, my friend, congratulations on this terrific win. It is richly deserved. Extremely well done - Allan #551819

Robin L. Wehrman May 20, 2004

Outstanding capture Gunther! Congratulations on your big win, this is well deserved!! #552236

Judy Rae May 20, 2004

Congratulations Gunther, this is an amazing capture! #552289

Gunther Allen May 20, 2004

Thank you for all he great comments! I am so happy that BetterPhoto picked mine out of so many excellent captures! I would name each and everyone of you, but I would rather spend the time looking at your work and commenting. Again thank you everyone! -G #552468

Donna La Mattino Pagakis May 20, 2004

I wanted to thank you for explaining the duatone effect. I tried it out today. I always wondered how it worked. Let me know how I did. It is the 'Bait Boat Maintenance' photo, entered in the general catagory. It was difficult the first time I tried, I will need more practice. Your work inspired me and I thank you for that Gunther!! Regards,

Donna P. #552539

Janet Detota May 20, 2004

Congratulations! Maybe the makers of Harry Potter would be interested in this! :-) #552540

Luigi Di Serio level-classic July 21, 2009

This is a jaw dropper! #7763571

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