Australasian gannet

[Brent Stephenson]

Hi there,
First time to post an image, so be gentle :D. Keen to get some feedback on this image though. Took a heap of photos yesterday at the Cape Kidnappers Australasian gannet colony and this was one i like the compostion of. I have just got my hands on the 1D MkIV and despite using it for a week, this was the first time with flying subjects. Have to say the auto-focus speed and ability to hold is sweet compared with the 50D...as I had hoped for! I tend not to do a lot of post-processing, and use Lightroom a fair bit for basic cropping and editing. Perhaps it's time I learnt to use PS a little more...

I've maybe burnt the forewing out a little, but difficult not to sacrifice part of the white for the exposure on the rest of the bird without tweaking mid-tones etc. Lightly cropped, with a little saturation added and sharpening in Lightroom.

Keen on your thoughts.

1D MkIV
400 DO f4 Handheld
f8 1/1250 ISO 200


http://www.eco-vista.com/Assets/images/blog/bstephenson_090370_100927.jpg

Cheers,
Brent

[Arthur Morris]

Actually, your whites were fine. Opening up the shadowed areas as I did here can be done in many ways. Not a lot of pixels to work with and the eye/face was not at all sharp. Did some Eye Doctor work and sharpened the head and face all as described in Digital Basics (https://store.birdsasart.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=252).

[Paul Lagasi]

Nice capture of this Gannet...nesting material in mouth a plus...good advice given above, some good image rescue techniques used...welcome..TFS (thanks for sharing)

[Brent Stephenson]

Thanks Art and Paul,
I do have Digital Basics somewhere on file Art so I will look it out...been a while since I read it :o. I probably didn't sharpen the head enough, although at 100% it seems pretty sharp, I'll have to check sharpness more carefully in future. Opening up the shadows sure makes a difference. Thanks for that. However, the eye now looks a little strange I'm afraid Art...the eye was natural (pale grey iris) in the image posted, with a highlight from the sun. I've posted a 100% crop to show the head detail of the bird (opened the shadows a little and resharpened).
Perhaps I need to swat a little more on how to produce good detailed 200K images for these forums as well as the DB file.

http://www.eco-vista.com/Assets/images/blog/bstephenson_090370_100927b.jpg

Many thanks,
Brent

[Arthur Morris]

Yup. I over-funkied the eye for sure. On the posted JPEG, there was one single pixel to represent the entire pupil... So yes, you need to re-visit your JPEG creation techniques. It is all in DB including direction on how to create a JPEG in a single keystroke. Everyone of my posted JPEGs here was created with that action. The head in pane 4 looks great (but too dark overall) but bears zero resemblance to what you posted... Time to hit the books.

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Welcome Brent!
Great advice given above - you will certainly learn loads here on this great forum :D

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Your RAW at 100% is amazingly sharp. The posted jpeg does no justice to it mate. Welcome and would love to see more stuff from across the ditch. :D

[Brent Stephenson]

Thanks very much guys. Lots to learn...I tend to do ok I think in the field, but some of my post-processing probably lets me down. Back to the books as Art says! Still, good to have constructive criticism in all areas so thanks to everyone.
Cheers,
Brent