Seagull pictures - The theme of this contest is "Move The Seagull". Click here for the high resolution source image. Take the seagull out of the source and place it in another photo. Pay close attention to your masking and the lighting. There is no reason for the use of artistic filters in this contest. You can make a photo-realistic or a photo-hoax image for this contest, but no artwork.
You will have 3 days to submit your entry. Submitting it early will give you plenty of time to read the critique comments and edit your image accordingly. Typical FreakingNews entry guidelines also apply. You can find them here.
Thanks to mashby for sponsoring this contest, and to hygglobert for donating the theme post image. We also want to thank the seagull for posing for the photo.
Seagull images - Critique Please / kind big bird, i know if u put it more small it would be subtle so my recomendation is crop your source to get more focus on the bird. Nice integration. / Thanks for the tip Skorpion, I did as you said and I think it looks better too, so thanks for taking the time to commetnt. By the way what do you think about the blur I gave the rest of the image (except for the pole and boat of course). / Nice job on this. I am convinced it is a real photo. His shadow on the boat could use some gaussian blur to match the rest of the focus of the boat. / Damn now this just look awsome, great to see that u execute the gived advices / AWSOME. If I didn't know better...I'd swear this was an un touched photo. / Thanks for everyone for your great comments and suggestions.
Seagull on the shore pictures - / You did a decent job here with bird shading & colors and shadow/reflection - it does look like a real photo. Perhaps make the bird actually touch its leg shadows - low she looks like it's levitating a bit (perhaps birds do levitate, but they usually conceal this ability by flapping their wings to make it look like flying). Parts of legs (right leg) look like they lost something through masking and cropping process. This makes them look too thin and too sharp. / This is a pretty good. The shadows on the top are too strong in my opinion and it seems that seagull is floating instead of standing on the shore. Try to blur the bottom of the feet a little and fix the reflection position just a tad. Good Luck… / Looks better now with the reflection fixed / Thanks for the tips, i have made some changes / Nice illumination effect on the bird, but reflection most be kind scaled at tall size and pasted more under the bird, as this way it look floating. Overall is a nice job. / Good job on this.. it needs a little more clarity somehow.. but the levitation theory has me giggling... Maybe sharpen a bit and go with the suggestions. Well done. PS... if I scissor my legs.. would I levitate. / Nice work here. Light & shadows look good. reflection should show the bird's underside rather than it's top side. The bird could use a tad of blur to match the rest of the image (for realism's sake). / i applied an unsharpen mask to the bird, it looks better now / The original pic is a close-up, if you move away the duck appears too squat, deformed, he needs to be a bit taller, or close-up on the bg / like this work.you dressup your own seagull.. / Hmmm, I think after the edit you made the seagull too dark, with unnecessarily high levels of contrast / well, i tried to make it as dark as possible without losing any color, because of the way the sun glares off in the background it would actually cause the seagull appear to be alot darker / i know what u tried, but sometimes u have to ignore some realistics effects cos u would loose the visual pum of the chop, i think like Newsy... now look kind dark specially head. But even that this sure will score so well
Seagull vers. Snowboarder pictures - / this is a very nice and funny idea, almost everything is well done but if u take a look to the ski-man you would see that your seagull's shadow goes in the wrong direction. Fix it and this would be done. / .. Really creative and funny, I'd clone out the person skiing in the back... Good Luck / Great job here.. and made me smile. Agree with skorp on the shadow.. plus - if you notice - the head is looking forward.. the legs however - are to the left - as in the challenge pic. You might have to source some gull feet.. Aaarghhh.... I'd also be inclined to try a horizontal and slant effect on the gull - so it looks as though he/she is really into it. Super job... well done. / Nice job on cutting the gull from the source. His feet & legs could use some shadow on the board. Also, by looking at the front of the board's shadow, the bird's is in the wrong direction. / I've no problem with the bird's orientation - and the new shadow makes it look very believable. Good, clever entry
Seagull pictures - not very aerodynamic... Oh, please Full View / Looks like it ate some alka selters. .. Nice job, though. / This seagull must have been on Atkins diet a bit too long
Seagull images - Critique Please / kind big bird, i know if u put it more small it would be subtle so my recomendation is crop your source to get more focus on the bird. Nice integration. / Thanks for the tip Skorpion, I did as you said and I think it looks better too, so thanks for taking the time to commetnt. By the way what do you think about the blur I gave the rest of the image (except for the pole and boat of course). / Nice job on this. I am convinced it is a real photo. His shadow on the boat could use some gaussian blur to match the rest of the focus of the boat. / Damn now this just look awsome, great to see that u execute the gived advices / AWSOME. If I didn't know better...I'd swear this was an un touched photo. / Thanks for everyone for your great comments and suggestions.
Beagle Seagull pictures - / I think I have felt that way about seaguls too.
Seagull pictures - / Seagull thinking: Humans are stupid. They take a pictures of me with their one ugly head
Wolf Seagull pictures - Don't look up when this guy flys by
Seagull on the shore pictures - / You did a decent job here with bird shading & colors and shadow/reflection - it does look like a real photo. Perhaps make the bird actually touch its leg shadows - low she looks like it's levitating a bit (perhaps birds do levitate, but they usually conceal this ability by flapping their wings to make it look like flying). Parts of legs (right leg) look like they lost something through masking and cropping process. This makes them look too thin and too sharp. / This is a pretty good. The shadows on the top are too strong in my opinion and it seems that seagull is floating instead of standing on the shore. Try to blur the bottom of the feet a little and fix the reflection position just a tad. Good Luck… / Looks better now with the reflection fixed / Thanks for the tips, i have made some changes / Nice illumination effect on the bird, but reflection most be kind scaled at tall size and pasted more under the bird, as this way it look floating. Overall is a nice job. / Good job on this.. it needs a little more clarity somehow.. but the levitation theory has me giggling... Maybe sharpen a bit and go with the suggestions. Well done. PS... if I scissor my legs.. would I levitate. / Nice work here. Light & shadows look good. reflection should show the bird's underside rather than it's top side. The bird could use a tad of blur to match the rest of the image (for realism's sake). / i applied an unsharpen mask to the bird, it looks better now / The original pic is a close-up, if you move away the duck appears too squat, deformed, he needs to be a bit taller, or close-up on the bg / like this work.you dressup your own seagull.. / Hmmm, I think after the edit you made the seagull too dark, with unnecessarily high levels of contrast / well, i tried to make it as dark as possible without losing any color, because of the way the sun glares off in the background it would actually cause the seagull appear to be alot darker / i know what u tried, but sometimes u have to ignore some realistics effects cos u would loose the visual pum of the chop, i think like Newsy... now look kind dark specially head. But even that this sure will score so well
Startled seagulls pictures - The seagulls got a nasty shock.
Seagull pictures - 
Seagull vers. Snowboarder pictures - / this is a very nice and funny idea, almost everything is well done but if u take a look to the ski-man you would see that your seagull's shadow goes in the wrong direction. Fix it and this would be done. / .. Really creative and funny, I'd clone out the person skiing in the back... Good Luck / Great job here.. and made me smile. Agree with skorp on the shadow.. plus - if you notice - the head is looking forward.. the legs however - are to the left - as in the challenge pic. You might have to source some gull feet.. Aaarghhh.... I'd also be inclined to try a horizontal and slant effect on the gull - so it looks as though he/she is really into it. Super job... well done. / Nice job on cutting the gull from the source. His feet & legs could use some shadow on the board. Also, by looking at the front of the board's shadow, the bird's is in the wrong direction. / I've no problem with the bird's orientation - and the new shadow makes it look very believable. Good, clever entry
Seagull pictures - not very aerodynamic... Oh, please Full View / Looks like it ate some alka selters. .. Nice job, though. / This seagull must have been on Atkins diet a bit too long