Red Kite in Flight

[ChrisH]

Yesterday I spent the afternoon on the banks of the River Thames trying out the suggestions given to me to improve my birds in flight images and I am pleased to say I achieved a better success rate.

The first image below is the original image size, shot with a Canon 30D and a Canon EF 70-300 mm f/4-5.6 IS USM lens at f/8, 1/1250, ISO 200, AF set to AI Servo with the AF Point to centre. The focal length was 275mm.



I was fascinated as you can clearly see the eyes focused on the ground searching for food. I tried to blow this up, however the result as can be seen below has what appears to be artifacts around the edges of the bird. I have used NeatImage to try and reduce it but this is about the best I can do. Can anyone suggest any other remedy, although I suspect I am pushing the boundaries already.

[FrankMi]

Hi Chris. The white halos can be removed by several methods but the one I tend to use is to display the image at 500 pixels and use a clone tool set to soft brush and 5 pixel diameter. I select a point perpendicular to the area I want to clear and about 5-7 pixels from the define point and just draw along the halo, changing the define point as I rotate around the object to keep the clone tool perpendicular.

Here is a quick snapshot. I didn't try to be really careful, just enough to show what I am doing. The clearing process can be quite fast and precise using this method.

[ChrisH]

Thanks Frank - I will give it a try.