Dunlin in flight

[Aditya Sridhar]

I'm still working on my BIF technique, but these Dunlins are great target practice (man are they difficult to track!) :bg3: This is a much heavier crop than usual (~5k pixels on the wide end), but the image quality held up. I didn't clone anything out, but I dodged a couple of dark patches in the water. I have an upstroke image of the same bird, but I liked the over wing details on the down stroke more. Comments and CC are appreciated as always :S3:

Camera - Nikon D850
Focal Length - 500mm
Aperture - f/5.6
Shutter Speed - 1/4000s
ISO - 2000
Handheld
Manual, Auto ISO

[Randy Stout]

Aditya:

Downstroke pose is excellent, as is angle in frame. Like the soft water, exposure and framing. The IQ has suffered a bit from the crop to my eye, even with the D850 sensor.

BIF are a challenge, esp. the smaller more erratic flyers. Capturing them is very much a learned skill, and requires lots of practice, and is a perishable skill, so we have to keep working at it!

Randy

[gail bisson]

This is a very hard bird to get a BIF shot of, so kudos on that!
I like the wing position and the sharpness.
The IQ to my eye is fine- not as good as your usual but still respectable.
Love the blue color palette in the water,
Gail

[Arthur Morris]

This is great. Ditto all the positives above. Sharp, IQ very good, and sweet water and reflections.

The only thing that bugs me is the crud on the bottom of the base of the bill. Is it mud? IAC, I would get rid of it in an instant.

with love, artie

[Ian McLachlan]

Looks very nice from here.

When you get focused with the 850 does it stay on or are you having trouble getting focus in the first place. I think Arash has some views along these lines with the 850 versus the D5.

But even with your big crop it looks sharp to me.

[Dorian Anderson]

Bravo for getting this small and speedy subject onto the sensor. Exposure looks good and sharpness is passable. Bird is a bit small in the frame for me, but I'm not sure you have the resolution to crop in much closer. I just wish for a bit
more DOF across the subject, especially on that far wing.

[Tim Munsey]

Lovely image, like the framing, eye contact, bird sharpness as said not easy to capture.
Is that the 500mm PF?

[Aditya Sridhar]

Thanks everyone! Revisiting the original, I might have gone too far with the structure slider on Capture One and the output sharpening in PS, which is why the bird looks super crunchy. I'll have another go at this file and see how it turns out.


This is great. Ditto all the positives above. Sharp, IQ very good, and sweet water and reflections.

The only thing that bugs me is the crud on the bottom of the base of the bill. Is it mud? IAC, I would get rid of it in an instant.

with love, artie

Artie - Looking at the bill at 100%, I think the highlights on the bill are reflections, not mud. Either way, I'll clone them out as you've suggested.


Looks very nice from here.

When you get focused with the 850 does it stay on or are you having trouble getting focus in the first place. I think Arash has some views along these lines with the 850 versus the D5.

But even with your big crop it looks sharp to me.

Ian - I haven't used the D5, but from my experience with the D850, I find that the AF is relatively solid once focus is acquired. Initial focus acquisition is quite good, but pre-focusing is a must for tiny subjects, particularly if their movement's erratic. Since these birds like to fly very close to the water's surface, the camera does struggle sometimes with getting a solid lock, but at the moment, I'll put it down to my inexperience and improper technique than anything else :t3


Lovely image, like the framing, eye contact, bird sharpness as said not easy to capture.
Is that the 500mm PF?

Tim - Yes, it's the 500mm PF. If one could fall in love with a piece of camera gear, then I'm smitten :t3

I've also uploaded a 300% crop of the bird. I forgot that I'd cloned out the second catchlight. Looking at the uncompressed file on my screen, I find the image very sharp, but the one thing that's been a real pain for me is the output sharpening. I just can't seem to get that part right. I'd love to hear your suggestions wrt to that :S3:

[John Mack]

This is hard to pull off. The small in the frame works well for me. I mean these birds are pretty small. Like the framing as is.