Adhika Lie
06-10-2016, 10:03 AM
Ok, a little bit of a break from the falcon, here are two pictures from Sunday at Bolsa Chica. There is a group of Black Skimmer in that area and I have always been fascinated by the way they fly "on ground effect" while skimming the water. They have a very long wing and that gives them a very good aspect ratio to glide, but the ground effect effectively reduces drag and thus minimizing altitude loss while they glide over the water. That long wing also gives them very good directional control as small movement on the tip can result in a significant rolling moment and thus change their direction of flight.
Having said that, this is one heck of a bird to expose properly. Very contrasty and exposing for the whites will cause the blacks to be so clogged up and exposing for the blacks will cause the whites to blow up. Out of almost 800 pics in that 3 hours, I have a few that, I think, have decent exposures and decent sharpness (did I mention they fly sooo fast that I can hardly keep up?). They are not 100% sharp on the eye, since it is almost impossible to grab focus on their small eye, but the DOF was enough to keep acceptable sharpness across the entire bird.
However, I am in a little bit of a conundrum here. The birds are pretty much shot against the water all the time and they are not great when they are so choppy like on that day. My big question is: How would you handle such situation in post-processing? Can it be made "prettier" in post-processing?
Here are the two of such examples. I'd love to hear your comments on the image as well. I hope you don't mind for the two for one. But all of my skimmer photos turn out like this and I feel like they both lack something in common. I don't know what.
162842
280mm, f/8, 1/2500, ISO1250
LR: Exp -0.15, Highlights -60, Shadows +68, Whites +40, Blacks -24
PS: CEP Detail extractor on the bird
24MP -> 14.7MP crop.
162843
280mm, f/8, 1/2500, ISO1250
LR: Exp +0.50, Highlights -100, Whites +19, Blacks -28
24MP -> 7.5MP crop
Having said that, this is one heck of a bird to expose properly. Very contrasty and exposing for the whites will cause the blacks to be so clogged up and exposing for the blacks will cause the whites to blow up. Out of almost 800 pics in that 3 hours, I have a few that, I think, have decent exposures and decent sharpness (did I mention they fly sooo fast that I can hardly keep up?). They are not 100% sharp on the eye, since it is almost impossible to grab focus on their small eye, but the DOF was enough to keep acceptable sharpness across the entire bird.
However, I am in a little bit of a conundrum here. The birds are pretty much shot against the water all the time and they are not great when they are so choppy like on that day. My big question is: How would you handle such situation in post-processing? Can it be made "prettier" in post-processing?
Here are the two of such examples. I'd love to hear your comments on the image as well. I hope you don't mind for the two for one. But all of my skimmer photos turn out like this and I feel like they both lack something in common. I don't know what.
162842
280mm, f/8, 1/2500, ISO1250
LR: Exp -0.15, Highlights -60, Shadows +68, Whites +40, Blacks -24
PS: CEP Detail extractor on the bird
24MP -> 14.7MP crop.
162843
280mm, f/8, 1/2500, ISO1250
LR: Exp +0.50, Highlights -100, Whites +19, Blacks -28
24MP -> 7.5MP crop