Little Blue at Viera

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Shot this yesterday in the fading light of the day, wondered what you all thought of it. Shooting data below.
Nikon D300
2009:02:24 14:01:55
600mm
900mm (in 35mm film)
1/800 sec, f/8
Mode: Av
Metering: Multi-segment
Exp comp: +1
ISO: 640
White balance: Auto
Flash: Off
File size: 76.4MB
Image size: 2674 x 2101
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: Adobe RGB (1998)

[James Shadle]

MAc,
I like the subject matter and composition.
However the image looks like the life has been drawn out of it.

My bet is your monitor is out of calibration or your using a laptop at a bad angle.

I would love to see this reposted from a calibrated monitor.

James

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I'm with James. It would be interesting to see the original to see what happened.

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Here is the original, I would be very interestred in what you can do with it. The monitor has been calibrated and is a very good monitor on top of that. I really don't know what the propem might be. Help is appreciated.
Mac

[Wheeler McDougal Jr.]

Peter- The time this image was taken was 5:30 well beyond your 4:00 recommendation. I know the camera clock said 2:00 but I took the picture and it was 5;30. Time in the camera was off. So I don't know what is causing the high contrast as the camera settings seem to be alright and my pp doesn't include a change in contrast. Thanks for your work on the original, but I must say I can't see alot o diference.
Mac

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Alright, maybe I can help. (probably not). OK, that time of day probably use ISO 400 hand held, center weighted metering. You want to only get your exposure off the bird, nothing else. I'd start off with no EV compensation. If you are using a tripod high ISO isn't necessary, it adds noise. Other than that I don't know. One other thing: your original has much less noise that your first post. Could be your doing something is Post Processing to add noise. Unsharp mask would do it. If using CS4 smart sharpening seems to be better or high pass sharpening IMO. Well I tried. regards~Bill