Prepared for Landing

[Bill Dix]

D90
80-400 @ 400mm
ISO 200; 1/1600 s. @ f5.6
Matrix metering, -0.3EV; AF-A; Auto WB
Beanbag on car window.
Cropped about 50% width and height.

This was about 6 weeks ago at Brigantine. Worst possible light on a bright day with the sun directly overhead. I'll have to start getting up earlier. But I do like the way the light comes through the tail feathers. Used s/h tool to lighten wings. I see a bit of halo so I probably oversharpened.

I cropped out his intended destination, an aesthetically-challanged 2x4 sticking out of a man-made platform. I toyed with inserting a better branch and sky from another file, but decided it went beyond my personal ethics.

C&C appreciated.

Bill

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - pretty much agree with your self critique - the harsh light being the problem, some of the whites on the head area are right on the edge.
Like the open beak, wish the head was turned a tad towards you rather than away, like the Talons.
See the Halo also - check out the educational resources forum for lots of sharpening tips especially with sky as the BG.
Looks like you are going to have to get up much earlier - looking forward to seeing more :)

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Bill,
I like the capture...I like the open talons and the beak. The capture angle is good, agree with Mr. Peters on the whites being over...keep them coming...:cool:

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Bill, Great action shot. When you photograph in the middle of the day in harsh light and apply a 50% crop you did all that could be done and actually did well. These kind of shots are cool and I would have taken it also, the bottom line is. They seldom will be of high quality and often require lots of work. Which is good, b/c it is a great practice project and you did well my friend. Just look at this beautiful creature, you caught him looking for lunch I assume - nice work.

[Gail Spitler]

Hi Bill - Agree with the other comments. I think you did well at getting the best from the situation. I notice several strange artifacts in the blue sky. Some of them along the left side look slightly gray and may be dust bunnies, but they look like pixel squares? I can see them throughout the sky, particularly if I scroll the image up and down on my monitor. Are they on the original raw version?
Cheers
Gail

[Bill Dix]

Thanks for the helpful comments. The halo shows up in the TIF file; the artifacts Gail refers to are worse in the JPEG conversion. Neither is evident in the RAW capture. The original sky looked very dull despite the bright sun, so I tried to improve the color of the BG. The problem, I suspect, is that the image is overworked both in color/level/contrast adjustments and in sharpening. It might be a useful exercise (when I have time) to go back to the original and try processing again using better (and less) technique; but as Jeff points out it will never be a high-quality image, so best to go out and get a better shot. Appreciate the advice.

[Gail Spitler]

Bill - It is interesting that I can't see these same artifacts on the same image posted at your website. Size difference maybe?

Cheers
Gail