Brant on the beach

[Bob Smith]

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Taken with 5D MarkIII and 400mm f/4 DO plus 1.4III Ext. ( so net 560mm ).EXIF-f5.6, 1/750, 1.5 EV, ISO 5000, focus surround with the centre focus point on the breast of the blurred bird in the background with the extended neck, shutter priority, and back button focus. This was shot on a heavily overcast day at about 80-100 yds. distance. In Aperture I applied quite a bit of noise reduction ( 1.48 and 1.86 radius and edge detail respectively ), added .44 of Recovery, decreased contrast a bit, added a bit of definition and a touch of vibrancy, adjusted the curve as shown, moved Levels to the right a bit and pulled out some shadow ( 34.73 ).
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My iPhone App. says the DOF for this set-up should be about 6m., which, in the image, looks about what I got. It's an interesting ( I think ) image content wise but I feel like it just lacks punch and clarity and you name it. Is this because of the lighting conditions and the high ISO? Comments would be much appreciated. There were a couple of thousand brant on the beach and just offshore this day, mixed in with as many widgeon and pins and mallards. I witnessed one fight between two brant ( males I suppose ) that went on in the air ( with a 3rd, female I suspect, following the 2 males ) all over the bay and then when they landed continued on the beach. That beach battle went on for about a minute and was quite a dramatic event, attracting a small audience of onlookers ( brant that is ). Finally one bird broke free and limped away down the sand looking quite tattered. I shot the whole thing but they were too far away for the images to have any quality, although they clearly show the intensity of what was going on.

[Bob Smith]

Oops, don't know how two images got in here but I tried "edit post" to remove one without success.

[Bob Smith]

Another "oops"---forgot one of the most significant factors in loss of definition--the crop factor here was to select an area about 20% of the original image and expand that to the original size ( not sure if that's the correct way to describe cropping ), leaving 43% of the original pixels.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Fixed it for ya! I agree with the loss of definition due to the crop, and the image is a bit hazy (something a bit more contrast would help with, I see that you actually reduced it). I love overcast conditions for outdoor photography, but yes, it may lead to a lack of "punch" at times...this is where processing gets important. A tough scene though...it would be interesting to see if a wide view would have been advantageous.

Over here people get excited when one or two Brant comes to shore...I can only imagine seeing so many!!

[Bob Smith]

Thanks Daniel--I missed this reply earlier. Yes there are lots of brant here from November through April. I haven't tried shooting brant over decoys yet with my 5DMIII and 400mm yet but I'm going to get a dozen blocks and a beach blind out soon and look forward to the results of getting them in close--hopefully on a sunny day. On a SE wind the birds will come ( pairs, singles, dozens at a time )right to the set, within 30 yds. or closer of the blind. Thanks for the contrast boost tip--it made a major difference. I've been frustrated lately seeing the fabulous snow goose images coming from Bosque. I have in the past gotten similar quality images on wavies from my old D50 but not much success to that level yet with my 5DMIII--perhaps because this fall almost all my outings have been on overcast days in the low light of evening --a bad combination it appears.