What should I have done?

[Declan Troy]

I had some sampling to do in Barrow this month. Nice to see the arctic a bit later than usual. Of course the light is getting a bit dimmer in the north, and there were the periods of fog, and storms had turned the water muddy brown, and there was a terrific, migration of Ross's Gulls. So, here was this exquisite bird in awful conditions. What would have been the best approach to getting decent images? I tried a couple of approaches as time and opportunity permitted but the results are wanting. Here is an example.

The background had been ice a couple of hours earlier but some wave action had pulverized it into slush.

50D, 100-400 @ 400, f5.6, 1/1000

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2694/4041686798_f0ca4ce1eb_o.jpg

[Jeff Cashdollar]

You did great, you were wide open for this lens and your shutter was a decent speed, given the environment A+. Maybe higher ISO to gain more shutter is the only thing that comes to mind.

You did not mention any post production workflow, this can and does greatly enhance digital photography. For example, Noise Reduction (NR) on the background, Cropping, Levels, Curves, Sat/Brightness, Selective Color and then Sharpening. The image needs a round of NR and then walk thru other steps that might enhance the image. It must have been great to have been there and experienced it, wow, thanks for sharing and please send more - well done. Remember, photography works best in good conditions, otherwise there is a big drop off. I love the picture, great nature image.

[Harold Davis]

i dim or flat conditions a flash works really well. in this situation i think you could have used the better beamer on the flash with no problem. will give the bird more pop for sure!!

as jeff said, you did really well with what you had here. i think there's a few more things you could do to enhance it even furthur.

[Lance Peters]

Hi - looks like it is a little under exposed - first thing I would do is go and set your black and white points via Levels in Photoshop.
Flash would have helped - other than that a increase in ISO - not sure how far you can go with the 50D.
I am sure you can improve it a lot!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Declan,
You did quite well with the capture and image produced, given the weather conditions. I like the raised wing position, and landing pose...all the techs. have been covered and good advise given...the main thing that I see here is the shutter speed at the point of capture, the rest of the variables can be adjusted in post processing...good show...looking forward to your next one...:cool:

[Declan Troy]

I neglected to list the iso, I can't check right now but most shots that day were at 1600, a extreme for the conditions and a 50D but the conditions were what the conditions were. I had futzed in post-processing but I tend to limit myself to what is possible in Lightroom and it (or me) has limitations in dealing with noise which can be found a plenty in this image. I will try to tweak some of the other settings but it is easy to get beyond a natural looking image. I guess there is a limit to what one can do with a pastel bird in dim light. I'm wondering if some exposure compensation at the time of capture might have made life easier during the processing.

I did do one set with a flash so I'll try to post one of those in the near future.

Thanks for the feedback.

Declan

[Dave Phillips]

you did well IMO, on a day like this I always try to expose as far to the right as possible
and "if" you want a more dynamic image, then some pp is almost always necessary.

Good advice given and I played a bit, just to see what I could pull out.
Not best that can be by any means, but different. I went for showing the turbulence
in the surf and bg clean up too.

Just an option to consider

[Alfred Forns]

I think you did the best possible under the circumstances, the idea of flash is excellent but don't think it will work at that shutter speed. Might take a few at the max sync speed and see what you get !!

It is a gorgeous bird and love the pose !!!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Beautiful bird Declan. Love the surf and the colour of the bird! Dave's repost looks good to me being a little lighter. Were you on a pier to get this shot?

[Jeff Cashdollar]

The repost does a good job on the surf (which was its objective). Agree with Al on flash, but with a BB some light would get thru to subject. The image just needs more post production work. You mention exposure comp, what was your metering mode and pattern?

You will needs better NR than LR as well, try the free download of Topaz.

[Declan Troy]

Dave shows that I was too timid on the brightness. I see so many defects when I push it but perhaps that is a function of display size. I'll force myself to be bolder.

The iso was 640.

Jeff it was partial metering and single (central) point AF. I'm hoping LR3 improves noise handling.

Jackie they are gorgeous birds. I was far from any pier. I was at Point Barrow, a spit between the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. As far north as you can get in Alaska. I just tried to time the waves. The Ross's Gulls had been migrating by pretty regular while I was up there but when the waves picked up they would drop down and forage in the surf. A this spot whey were catching amphipods. A couple of days earlier at another site I was working at (NARL to those familiar with the Barrow area) they seemed to be getting some very small fish).

Not sure if this will work but just in case here's a link showing where I was (if it fails type Point Barrow into google maps).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=point+barrow&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Point+Barrow,+North+Slope,+Alaska&ll=71.348504,-156.509514&spn=0.145922,0.304184&t=h&z=12

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Like other have mentioned, you did real well under this tough condition.
The environment in this shot is very excellent, the landing pose is nice too. Don't be afraid to push your histogram to the right when taking a picture, there will be less noise when darken an image than lighten one, also there are more tonal information on the right (bright) side of histogram than the left (dark) side for digital photography.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Thanks for the link Declan, I will have a look now. Not sure how good LR is with Noise, but have you looked at Topaz Denoise. Pretty reasonably priced and has a trial period. How do you like living in Alaska?? Pretty rugged country. I have been up there once (cruise), and close a second time, to the Khutzeymateen Valley.
Checked the link, you were on a skinny strip of land/sand. Worth it for that shot!

[Declan Troy]

Hey Jackie,

LR is quite wanting with noise. The next version (in beta) is supposedly better although I doubt it will match some of the 3rd party alternatives. I have some reasons for not going that route but I may break down special cases. AK is fine, winters are a big long for me (forecast indicates I may need my shovel in the morning) but since my research is primarily arctic it is well situated. I will be in TO for a visit before the year is out.

I like your dragonfly but you didn't do your level best on both wings!

[john jackson]

Hi Declan

Ross's is a wonderful species. I can see the makings of a highly atmospheric B&W image here.

[Declan Troy]

Hey John,

That's an idea. I may try B&W on some of the juvs.....