DC Cormorant

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Hi,

I was playing with ISO settings couple of weeks ago and I was positively surprised how this young Cormorant turned out. However I'm not sure to where to place this bird in the photo.

EOS MK3 + 500/4 + 2.0 TC
F/8
Evaluative Metering 1/160; +1
ISO 1000
Camera on beanbag.


Cheers,

Mikko

[John Chardine]

You have good detail here Mikko. The mkIII is a good performer at higher ISOs (did you run any NR?). I like the soft background and the head angle is good. I would have cropped somewhat higher than this and taken some off of the right too. I think the image would be improved if the face and eye were lightened a little to bring out more of the detail.

[Julie Kenward]

Mikko, here's a link to a tutorial on how to line up an image using the ROT's positioning:

http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?52894-Rules-of-Thirds-Compositional-Examples

What I did was moved your frame around to get that eye really close to one of the ROT's grid points. I also opened a levels adjustment and noticed that your high tones weren't quite as strong as they could be, nor were your darkest tones. You can tell this by the fact that the data line on the histogram is nearly flat at both ends before it goes up into the bell curve of data. Slide the white and black sliders in a bit - almost to the point where the graph starts to take an upward turn and see what you think of the image then.

I also selected the eye and did a quick curves adjustment to bring out more detail there.

A very nice image overall - would have been stronger if he had been turned towards you a bit more - but still very nicely captured.

[Mikko Viljamaa]

Thanks Julie!

I really like what you did to the photo, especially to the eye.


Mikko