Swan Portrait

[Jeffrey Smigielski]

This was on third day of effort. afternoon sun was other side of lake and bird was only about 8 feet in from shore. Worked my way to the edge of shore about thirty feet from this bird. I was shooting another swan when he decided to walk over and see what I was doing. At one point he was so close I couldn't take any pics. This was 6 or 7 feet away. Figured if he came at me the only place to go was in the water. That would not have been good! LOL He was good though...I ended up having a pretty one sided conversation with him.

Wish I had a 2.8 lens on but still ok I think but would love to hear thoughts. I have about 20 of these but chose this one.

This is uncropped.

I noticed a thin green line on back of neck as in a previous post. This is in the raw file out of the camera. Could be the camera or white balance settings when shot. CC welcomed and appreciated.

D90
300 f/4 with 1.4c TC
1/800s at f/5.6
-1EV under 200

Note: I shot with this lens combo all week. This is the older AF 300 ED f/4 with the Kenk pro 300 1.4x TC. The combo is ok but slow to hunt on AF. Have a new Nikon 1.4 TCII but need to pick up AFS 300 F/4 lens.


Thanks for looking.
Jeff

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jeff

The green line is chromatic aberration which you can eliminate during the conversion with ACR !! Easy just moving one slider !!!

I like the pose, bg and tight crop Might have place the bird further right in the frame or given a little space left. Tough choice since he is looking right !!! Also clone out the white at the bottom !!

For birds this close try to be as accurate as possible with focusing, place the point right on or just in front of the eye if you are stopping down. I can go either way, shallow or lots !! Exposure looks good and you came out unharmed from the encounter !!! Would say good all around !!!

[Jeffrey Smigielski]

Thanks Al.

Appreciate the feedback as alway and I know I am making progress. It is very frustrating.

[Bob Miller]

Hi jeff...I agree with Al's suggestions esp leaving more room to look into. The background is nice and clean! Looking forward to your next post!

[Lance Peters]

Hi jeff - AL has it covered - like the BG - Just the point of focus to consider, really needs to be on the eye area more when the DOF is limited.
Looking forward to seeing more :)