Willet in flight

[gail bisson]

Taken at Glace Bay Harbour
Canon 7D
100-400mm at 400mm
ISO 640
SS 1/1250
f 5.6
Manual
Full vertical from horizontal shot
Critiques ans comments always appreciated

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice view of the wings...these guys sure are transformed once airborne!! Good sense of habitat, if anything I wish the BG was a bit warmer/more colourful.

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, loved that BG...it makes a big difference. Excellent subject separation and AF work. Good exposure and subject placement. Lots of details in the bird...impressive considering it must have been very small in the orig frame. That is the advantage of 7D, I guess.

Although the bird is flying slightly away, you captured a good head turn. That also makes a big difference. Well done.

[Tin Man Lee]

You nailed it, Gail, these willets are fast. Nice banking pose, details and lovely background. Good job!

[Karl Egressy]

Excellent flight picture, Gail. Love the composition pose and background.

[arash_hazeghi]

great dynamic pose the IQ is not great however, especially the head seems to have blended with the BG without much detail but these guys fly fast. Keep them coming.

[gail bisson]

Hi Arash,
How could I have improved this shot in camera? How would I prevent the head from blending into BG? Why do you say IQ not great? What is it that you see? Teach me:S3:
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Arash,
How could I have improved this shot in camera? How would I prevent the head from blending into BG? Why do you say IQ not great? What is it that you see? Teach me:S3:
Gail

Hi Gail,
How much of crop is this? and can you post a 100% frop of the head from the original? I would be happy to help (if I can) :S3:

[gail bisson]

Hi Arash, I will try to post a 100% crop of head but first I will post the original picture as it is a big crop and I will do the 100% crop next,Thanks Arash

[gail bisson]

This is the 100 % crop

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks Gail for posting, the 100% crop looks reasonably sharp although not tack sharp (given that it was taken with 100-400 zoom lens, lens is the real limiting factor here) so you did an excellent job with the AF getting the sharpest focus possible with your lens.

The main issue here is the high level of noise/grain and huge crop. Unfortunately the 7D is a noisy camera and it cannot handle cropping so aggressively. The NR you have applied is responsible for degrading the IQ and causing the blending artifact/loss of contrast around the head area. It has also given the image a somewhat mushy look.

In order to get a high IQ image in this case the willet needed to be at least 4X larger (2X taller and 2X wider) in the frame. But I understand it was a flight shot and the distance was out of your control. Hopefully you will get a closer flyby next time :S3:

hope this helps



you did your part well!

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Gail, agree with Arash. You did very well on the AF part. main issue is the subject distance. 400mm was short here. I use 400 so I know that situation too well.

[gail bisson]

Thanks a bunch Arash! I really appreciate your help your help,
Gail
It is time to start saving for the f4 500mm!!

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks a bunch Arash! I really appreciate your help your help,
Gail
It is time to start saving for the f4 500mm!!

Before you get to 500mm if your main subject is flight I would get the 400 f/5.6 it is much sharper than the zoom and AF is faster too! This was my main lens for almost three years.

[Ofer Levy]

Nice shot. Fantastic comments and advice from Arash. This kind of input is what makes BPN such a great place!:w3