Cormorant Party

[Dave Blinder]

yesterday evening, New Jersey

Curious how others would have handled the techs, comp, and post-processing?

This was as close as I could get to the birds, I was shooting from a dam. This was definitely the pinnacle of action, I have other frames with higher shutter speeds using less DOF. No laughing Cormorant in those though.

I ran some NR on the full image in LR3. Image was then brought into CS4, cropped a bit from the right, BG elements desaturated, NR on BG + rear bird, High-Pass sharpening on both birds.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/4816168540_4e107f1418_b.jpg

EF 500 IS + 1.4 TC, tripod
<table id="Inbox" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td style="font-size: 120%;" width="30%">Camera:</td> <td style="font-size: 120%;">Canon EOS 7D (http://www.flickr.com/cameras/canon/eos_7d/)</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 120%;" width="30%">Exposure:</td> <td style="font-size: 120%;">0.01 sec (1/100)</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 120%;" width="30%">Aperture:</td> <td style="font-size: 120%;">f/13.0</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="font-size: 120%;" width="30%">Focal Length:</td> <td style="font-size: 120%;">700 mm</td> </tr> <tr> <td>ISO Speed:</td> <td>1000</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Exposure Bias:</td> <td>+1 EV</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Flash:</td> <td>Off, Did not fire</td></tr></tbody></table>

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Interesting capture and thanks for the explanation. I like the eye contact, soft light and BG. To get both birds in focus, stopping down even more and raising ISO and/or backing up a bit might have been an option. You could try to selectively the bird in the back more.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Dave, I like the idea a lot. But unfortunately, the bird with the open beak is OOF and that is where the eye goes. I am not saying focus should be on that bird. Only more DOF could have done justice. But I am guessing the BG would have become much worse. Just a tough situation IMO. I would also move them away from the center to the right. wondering if vertical comp would have been more appropriate.

[Dave Blinder]

Thanks guys, I'm wondering if an alternate take with reduced DOF or more motion blur on the 2nd bird for just a "suggestion of the action" might be favorable in this situation?

[Arthur Morris]

I will be the off man out here. I like it, especially the very painterly BKGR. I think that Axel meant selectively sharpen the back bird... And I am a sucker for juxtaposition images.