Whiskered Tern

[PhilCook]

I'm posting here because I wonder how this looks on others monitors. I sent to a friend the other day and he replied he liked it bit was disappointed he couldn't actually pick out the eye, but on my monitor it is quite clear ? Overall probably not the best IQ one could hope for, it was no easy task trying to line up these speedy birds at 500mm.

The original is a wide aspect image, worked OK, but just cropped this to vertical because ...I can lol

Canon 7D + 500 f4 .....f5, 1/4000, ISO200, -0.3EV, Aperture Priority, hand held......cropped to vertical, selective sharpen and shadow recovery, slight tweak to eye with dodge tool

[Faraaz Abdool]

Fantastic image here Phil! I can see the eye quite well - or at least the eye-ring. If it wasn't for the eye-ring and my knowledge of eye placement on terns I may not have known where the eye was though. Tough conditions with a rapidly moving bird that's mostly white, with a black face! The pose is a killer pose, great choice cropping it vertical. Composition works very well.

[PhilCook]

Thanks Faraaz, appreciated

[Clyde Hopper]

On my home monitor i could see the eye well-enough , But on my laptop ,not very well at all . Is there an Eye Doctor in the house ? lol

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Phil,

This is an amazing shot, on my MacBook the eye is not well defined but still good!

There is so much to like here,..the great wing spread, the fantastic background, the image feel and vibe and the whites are well controlled. The capture angle is great too,..well done and the eye is strong enough,.this is a really good picture. Thanks for sharing and please keep em coming!

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Phil, excellent capture of a difficult bird. I think this is a Caspian... My monitor is calibrated and I can see all the steps of the calibration strip at the bottom of the page, but I couldn't make out the eye unless I knew where to look. It is THE most difficult thing about this species. It doesn't bother me in this shot though, I think it's super. It's one of those cases where we try to make an image better that what the eye would have seen. Having said that, when I get a tern with a clear eye I am very happy. :c3:

[PhilCook]

Thanks all, interesting about the visibility of the eye.

It is definitely a Whiskered Tern rather than a Caspian, this is a a very small tern whereas the Caspian is much larger and has a longer bill

[Kerry Perkins]

Phil, sorry - my brain is not the boss right now! Of course you are right and I wasn't disagreeing with you, in fact I hadn't even read the title of your post, so I was just guessing based on the bill (slaps forehead...) :e3 The Caspians that I see are pretty large, and they also have black wing tips. Sorry about that!

[PhilCook]

Phil, sorry - my brain is not the boss right now! Of course you are right and I wasn't disagreeing with you, in fact I hadn't even read the title of your post, so I was just guessing based on the bill (slaps forehead...) :e3 The Caspians that I see are pretty large, and they also have black wing tips. Sorry about that!

No apology necessary Kerry, cheers