Works or Not

[Lance Peters]

Works for you or Not - and why??
AND based on the info below - what would you have done different

(Water colour is realistic - a very aqua blue)

This is one of those places were you just have to take what you can get - Michalemas Kay - Far North Queensland - Sand Kay in the great barrier reef.
Only way to get there is via Tourist Boat (scuba diving) and gets there about 11am and departs at 4pm - so prime lighting conditions ;(

Kay is full of nesting birds - but you are not allowed on the island - so if you are lucky enough to get there on a high tide - you shoot from waist deep water - not for the faint hearted. So very limited shooting angles and tough light.

D3
Nikon 5ooMM F4
F6.7
1/2500
400 ISO
-0.3ev
matrix metering
Handheld

Fire away!!!

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Lance,

Greetings. Interesting shot... my eyes struggle to find a center of attention, partially I think, because the focus seems to be in the middle of the pack. Perhaps if the closest terns were more in focus and stopped down to f/8 for dof? I think, too, a tighter less panoramic aspect ratio would be my preference (& a hair CW rotation). TFS...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[arash_hazeghi]

Hey Lance, this one I agree with Mike, looks like dof is too thin and eye keeps searching for the focal point. otherwise great

[Lance Peters]

might Agree

But what would you have done with the scene in front of you??

[arash_hazeghi]

might Agree

But what would you have done with the scene in front of you??

not sure, it's a tough situation I have never been able to pull out anything from a scene with so many birds.

[Harold Davis]

But what would you have done with the scene in front of you??

higher vantage point to have that beautiful water as the bg and a very small aperture for max dof. i think that the sheer number of birds with that turquoise water would be strong enough to carry it. just my .02!!!:)

hope all is well Down Under!!!

[VinceRossi]

Other the the comments above to answer your question of what to do.

I would take out the bird in flight. Draws too much attention.
The I would cropp out the Crop out a section of the photo just below the bird in flight and use the bird with his wings up and some of the birds around him and eliminate the browns birds as they too draw too much attention.
Then work on sharpening and and other adjustments.

Did your camera have water on the lense. It seems to have some spots in thee water that look like they could have been droplets.

[VinceRossi]

Here is my idea of cropping. I didn't do anything else except taking out some water spots. I also decided to leave in the bird in flight.

[Dave Leroy]

It sounds and looks a like a very interesting and lovely place.

I like the suggestions already given particularly the more dof idea.
Without having seen the site, I wonder if a smaller zoom type lens would have give an acceptable environmental type shot and had been easier to use and compose with. I also know it is not easy carting extra equipment or changing lenses while on boats.

I bet you had a lot of fun.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

might Agree

But what would you have done with the scene in front of you??

Lance,

Greetings. I couldn't find a tighter crop that worked, but came up with this...

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/yamo/images/AccessibleImages/terns-Edit-3.jpg

Quick canvas extension top & bottom, added small strip to separate bif, slight CW rotation...

Looking at this I think the pano aspect ratio of the OP along with the shape of the terns' heads gave a feeling of vertical compression. Opening it up a bit vertically, seems to have solved some (not all) of the dof/foregound focus difficulty for me. I also tried selectively detailing (topaz detail2) the foreground birds to some good effect (would work better on full sized image) but not in above.

Interesting problem. Had I been shooting, I might have tried for a multi-shot pano extending both vertically & horizontally from this view.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Lance Peters]

Great idea's - Like the multi shot pano!
I also found that it did not wok not enough DOF for my tastes - the extremely limited shooting position and being in the water without a tripod - I did not have a lot of other options.

Lesson - Be prepared - should have taken a tripod and a smaller zoom to give me more flexability.

[Bill Dix]

Tough one, Lance. The OP doesn't really work for me. Not enough blur for a blur, not sharp enough to grab my attention. I like the comp of the OP, except for the half-birds at the left and right edges, which is hard to do anything about. Just to be contrarian, I might try cropping up from the bottom to make even more of a pano and eliminate the brown birds, although I admit that creates lots more half-birds. Not sure what to say, except try more dof next time, as you have suggested.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

FWIW Lance, I think the light killed you. The colours have a very harsh look. I think you did a great job with what you had and the exposure looks good. IMHO, a record shot. If the light was with you, I like Harold's idea of higher, but maybe that wasn't an option.