BCNH in Flight

[Kurt Bowman]

Captured this BCNH this spring after finding several nesting at a local lake.


50D
300mm f/4 w/1.4 tc
handheld
ISO 400

[Aidan Briggs]

Nice and sharp with a good wingspread. I like the banking pose even though the bird is flying away. The dark areas of the BG are bugging me, and I might run NR on the whole BG. You also might try a linear burn on the neck area.

Keep them coming.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the gliding pose and light in this one and agree regarding a more uniform BG and the bird being angled away from you.

[Arthur Morris]

Fairly sharp on the eye and a nice pose but the light area behind the bird drags the viewer's eye.

How did you determine the exposure?

[Kurt Bowman]

Thanks for ghe comments. Art, I used evaluative and was at -2/3. Was shooting a lot of snowys the same day.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the comments. Art, I used evaluative and was at -2/3. Was shooting a lot of snowys the same day.

Thanks Kurt. With -2/3, you should be able to save the over-exposed pixels during RAW conversion. See the various Saving the Whites tutorials in Educational Resources. I was able to make this look a lot better by doing a Linear Burn on the whites, filling in the light area ulc with a QM of the lrc, and then smoothing out the BKGR with a soft Clone Stamp Tool. All from Digital Basics: https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=32

[Arthur Morris]

ps: The light from the right was less than ideal.... But all in all, you did well.

[Kurt Bowman]

Thanks Art! Really appreciate the critique and help on this. Have a great holiday!