Egret in Flight

[Nazhiyath Vijayan]

I was just setting up to photograph this egret when it all of a sudden took off. I just managed to fire off 3 shots. This was the best of the lot. Have not done much flight photography but trying to get into it. Vij

Canon 40D
Canon 600mm f/4L IS at f/7.1, 1/400 sec
ISO 100
Focal length 840mm with TE 1.4
No flash

[Doug Brown]

For flight photography, you want to maximize shutter speed. With a 40D, I'd shoot at between ISO 400 and 800 in good light. I like the wing position in your photo. Whites are hot in places. Sharpness could be better, but flight photography takes a lot of practice. Keep up the good work, and thanks for posting!

[Arthur Morris]

I like the pose and the grasses and the sharp eye. Doug has covered the problems well.

[Dan Brown]

Hey Vij, very nice! I agree with the above. Next time you go out to shoot, set the ISO at 400 and just don't under expose if you can (under exposure will cause mucho noise!). I notice that the image is small (80kb), you can post up to 200kb and this will present your images with max quality. I did a little adjusting with photoshops "shadow and highlight" filter, sharpened the head and neck, reduced noise in the BG with Noise Ninja (a PS plugin filter) and finally selectively toned down the bright neck area with a "brightness and contrast" layer. What do you think?

Dan Brown

[Nazhiyath Vijayan]

Thank you all for the advice and suggestions. Dan, it does look better. I will remeber the file size and ISO. Vij