Kevin Barry took first place in Grade B with the stunning composite image below. The image was so popular indeed, that it took second place overall across all grades. Here’s how it came together:

“I had great fun “making” this “shot”! There were three photos involved.”

“Photo-1
I took this shot of a full moon on a clear dark night. I used a sigma 170-500 zoom lens, fully extended to 500mm, camera on tripod, remote control activated to reduce camera shake. S/S= 1/800, F/stop=6.3, ISO= 250, F/L= 500
(I had tried many different settings, these seemed to work best, on the night).”

“Photo-2
I took this photo of a single tree on a hill in daylight. (This particular tree always looks sinister to me!) I got a friend to pose with the dog. I deselected the sky from the photo, in photoshop elements, converted photo to B/W and altered contrast and colour to create a full silhouette effect. I then imported it into the moon photo and positioned and resized it for best effect. S/S= 1/200, F/stop=8.0, ISO= 100.”

“Photo-3
I have hundreds of bird photos- not very good ones, but nature photography is what I like doing! I selected a silhouette shot of a rook in Photoshop, altered the size and imported it into the the moon shot, for dramatic effect. S/S= 1/4000, F/stop= 6.3, F/L=500.”

“The final result is some kind of “photo-art”, but not proper photography, to my mind.”

Well done Kevin.

See also:

ECCG ‘Silhouette’ Competition – 20/5/14
How I took that Shot – Karen Fleming
How I took that Shot – Trevor O’Connell