Pied-bill Grebe

[Donna Lorello]

This was made in November, 2007 - sun not in a great place and I don't have a flash other than the onboard one on the camera, which didn't do much of anything with this shot. I have slightly cropped the image and adjusted the levels and sharpness a bit in PS Elements and did a slight noise reduction. Any additional suggestions for this image? I'd really love to print and frame this one and perhaps offer a nice copy to the local library for permanent display. I know a flash would be a nice addition to the equipment collection as well.

Canon 300D Digital Rebel, digiscoped through Swarvoski HD A80 (direct tube attachment camera body to scope); Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/125; Exposure Compensation -1/3; ISO Speed 800

[Robert O'Toole]

Hi Donna. Looks like you did a decent job of capturing the image but the situation was so tough. The colorful water looks great.

The light is so contrasty and since you were so far off a good light angle the left side of the bird is in deep shadow and the light areas detailess. There isnt really any real clean way to bring back details in the shadows without making this area very noisy, the same can be said for the highlights. If this file came from a RAW image you can convert 2 files, one lighter and one darker and blend the 2 images into one with masks, but for this you would need Photoshop.
Next time try to keep the sun at your back and your shadow pointing at the subject and if possible try to place the subject at least off to one side looking into the frame and out of the middle.

Robert

[Donna Lorello]

thanks, Robert! There wasn't much area with which to move around at all due to the location. I have an old version of PS - 5.0 - I think. An updated version is on my wish list too.