Red-Winged Blackbird in flight

[Kevin Leclaire]

Nikon D300 handheld. Nikor 70-300 VR at 300mm, ISO 280, 1/400s, F5.6

I took this photo this morning at a local pond in Reston, VA. I've been trying for some time to get a half decent shot of a red-winged blackbird in flight, but with BIF for small birds, I have found it very difficult to get a good shot handheld. This male obliged this morning by staying in my focus zone as I tracked his landing. I have the Nikon Picture control settings just a shade north of Standard (+1 contrast, +1 saturation), but other than cropping and downsampling for the web, have not post-processed this image.

This is my first post, so any and all feedback is welcome.


-Kevin

[Ed Prete]

First, welcome and a bold attempt with what you are trying to capture. Not an easy subject to get in flight. There is evidence of motion blur, likely the result of inadequate shutter speed, that in turn because of too low of an ISO. I Would have upped the ISO to as high as I could to get sufficient shutter. The exposure looks pretty good on the bird, and I'd perhaps do a layers adjustment to tone down the background a little bit. The bird also sits dead center, which I try to avoid. Also, feel explore post processing as much as possible, and don't feel post processing is "cheating" or altering anything. Getting everything correct in camera to begin is near impossible as the latitude of digital isn't there and way too frequently there are way too many variables to take into consideration. Keep them coming!

[Kevin Leclaire]

Agree on the shutter speed--I had been framing a shot of the bird in a tree when he took off and I didn't get the shutter speed up in time. As it's a crop, I could easily reposition the subject to the left or right third and will keep it mind.

I'm afraid a layers adjustment is a bit beyond my PP experience to date, I usually only use CaptureNX, but have a copy of PS Elements 5, which may have the capability.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Fabs Forns]

Hi Kevin, red carpet welcome to BPN, hope your experience here proves to be exciting.

Great advise by Ed, I'll add that you can use the burn tool in Elements to tone down the bg if layers is still a bit complicated for you.
Looking forward to ore!~

[Daniel Cadieux]

Welcome to BPN Kevin!!

Great advice so far. Cropping the left would serve double benefit here. The first obviously is uncentering the bird and the second, getting rid of the vertical trunk at left. You were close, but upping the ISO is the single biggest thing to do here for next time (minimum 400, and even 800).

[Larry Daniel]

There are some tools in NX that will help tone down or diffuse the background.

Hard to catch one of these in flight, good job.