Fish Eagle

[Ken Watkins]

Taken at Rhino Safari Camp, Matusadona, Zimbabwe, 16th June 2009

EOS 1D MkIII

500mm F4 IS hand-held

F5.6, ISO 200, 1/2000

[Mark Fuge]

Nice shot.

I would suggest vertical format, as the bird is totally vertical in pose, with both the feet and wings extended. It also seems a little soft. Shutter speed or lens support would help. IS is not always a save all, unfortunately, with the big lenses. Helps, but ...

[Connie Mier]

Love the details in those feathers, very sharp and I like the wing and leg positions of the bird.

[Harshad Barve]

If mine , I will crop it vertical, can take some sharpness
lovely wing postion , all in all nice shot
TFS

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

Nicely exposed, good wing position, HA>

Is this a significant crop? I believe your shutter speed was fast enough to hand hold this one, so wonder if the softness if from a crop issue?

I appreciate the vertical crop suggestions, and think that would work well here.

Randy

[Fabs Forns]

Very nice pose, although very soft and the sky could be de-saturated. Too intense a blue as presented. Vertical would work too if this is not already a big crop.

[Ken Watkins]

Mark,

I thought that 1/4000 was quite fast, lens support would undoubtedly help but is almost impossible in an open series 3 Land Rover, with no means of support i.e doors windows or bars.

The crop is not large about 50%, as for the sharpness it is OK in TIFF (not great) but does not convert toJPEG as well, the same can be said for the blue!

I am a little bewildered as to everybody's differing taste in crops, yesterday I was advised to add more space for the bird to fly into. I suppose it is all a matter of taste.

[Fabs Forns]

Mark,


I am a little bewildered as to everybody's differing taste in crops, yesterday I was advised to add more space for the bird to fly into. I suppose it is all a matter of taste.

Mark, the suggestions are nothing but opinions, some more educated than others, but opinions nonetheless :)

[Erich Stevens]

Ken,

There's a lot of terrific detail here to study over for a while. Perfect wing position, and look at those talons! I like it as a horizontal comp. The legs just above the talons seem a bit hot. Good EXP everywhere else. Excellent work!

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

The joys of composition :) There are lots of guidelines and some rules, but ultimately, you have to go with what works for you and a particular image. If the wings weren't up, and the legs dangling, than a horizontal crop, somewhat like you have, would work. When you add all the vertical components of the image, you start to think of vertical cropping as well, or at least less horizontal.

Yes, you generally want room for the bird to fly into, but it doesn't have to be as dramatic as you have allowed for in most cases. I absolutely wouldn't want this to be centered, but a modest offset to the left should do it. I don't think all the blank space to the left adds much.

Without adding canvas, I played around with several crops, and for me (just my personal tastes) this version works OK. If I had more vertical canvas to play with, I might add a smidge below.

This is more of a squarish crop than some would prefer, but I am not generally bothered by square crops, but it depends on the subject too.

So, keep them coming. Try multiple crops on each image, to see what works for you!

Randy

[Ken Watkins]

Fabs

I agree with your point about opinions everybody has differences in what they like to see it is just that it can sometimes be bewildering. But looking at Randy's post I think the comments on cropping for this image are probably correct.

Randy,

Thanks for that I think that works well, if not better.

I've asked before but does anybody have any idea why I continually get this "blue" problem when convering to JPEG,I have always been told that making changes to JPEG's and resaving then causes a lot of deteriortion in the image.

[Stu Bowie]

Ken, being out in the african bush, without smog and industries, I would have thought the blue in this was natural. You could maybe desat just a tad, but I dont find this colour too off at all.

Great inflight capture of the FE, but I too find him a bit soft. You have handled the whites very well, as those parts are difficult to get right. Randy's crop works well, and remember, its what you like. Cheers.

[Randy Stout]

Ken:

Does your original look this blue? If it looks bluer when posted on the web, perhaps there is a color space problem, rather than the jpeg conversion causing the problem.

What color space do you work in? Most web sites use sRGB, and that is what I convert to before I post, even though I don't do most of my work in that color space.

Randy

[Mark Fuge]

Mark,
I thought that 1/4000 was quite fast, lens support would undoubtedly help but is almost impossible in an open series 3 Land Rover, with no means of support i.e doors windows or bars.
The crop is not large about 50%, as for the sharpness it is OK in TIFF (not great) but does not convert toJPEG as well, the same can be said for the blue!
I am a little bewildered as to everybody's differing taste in crops, yesterday I was advised to add more space for the bird to fly into. I suppose it is all a matter of taste.

No problem, Ken, but I will try to answer those issues that I raised that you question. There are always possibilities for support. Hand holding is acceptable when the results are. I find that I am having a harder time doing that with my 300mm and extenders than I did a few years ago. That is called aging!

I know some vehicles are less so, but back of the seat, door frame, etc can help you if needed and no other opportunity is available. Just make sure the engine is off when you shoot. The vehicle vibration is very noticeable. I've been there and done that. I have a 2 foot piece of neoprene pipe insulation that I use on my car window. It does the trick when I shut off the motor and have no passengers wiggling in their seats.

<O:pJPG conversion is a problem. I had it the other day with one of my posts as well. If that's it, I understand your plight.

<O:pAs far as the crops go, I didn't see your image yesterday, but presume the bird was in a more horizontal flight pattern. In that case more room is desirable. In your image today, the compostion of the bird is vertical and therefore a vertical crop is an alternative worthy of exploration. I would still have more room in front of the bird than behind it, but you can cut it down to a vertical crop and leave about 1/3 of the open space behind the bird and about 2/3 in front. The area in front can be about the size of the bird in the image. Adjust that to your tastes.

<O:pAs noted, all comments are just that and are only suggestions by others. We are here to help and while the comments are not always consistent, review them and see what you agree with and discard those for which you do not agree. We all need to have someone comment on images, as we do not always see the pros and cons. As you post, you will also note that even Artie recieves comments on his images that he appreciates and uses.

Don't get discouraged by the comments. Learn from them and you will learn what are good ones and what are otherwise. However, in the long run,

<O:pIt is your image and your vision.

<O:p

[Ken Watkins]

Randy,

I believe that I did not convert to sRGB, I work in Adobe RGB, I used to have an action for doing this, but lost it when PS crashed. Thank you for reminding me I'll give it another go and see if it helps.

Mark,

Thanks for your explanation, I appreciate your assistance, hopefully the JPEG conversion problem will go away.


Stuart

I think you have probably hit the nail on the head the bird is a little too soft for a worthwhile rescue.
I agree sometimes the blues are unbelievably blue and can look a little unnatural.