Black-crowned Night Heron

[Bill Dix]

I came across a group of perhaps 25 Black-crowned Night Herons at Brigantine on a cloudy/rainy day last week - I've never seen so many in one place. I know the IQ here suffers from a bit of noise and 50% crop, but figured I'd share it, as my first opportunity to catch one of these guys in flight. C&C appreciated.

D7000 | 700mm | 1/2000s | f/7.1 | +0.7 EV

[Doug Brown]

You got a nice incoming flight pose, and made the most of it. The red eye really pops with an otherwise subdued color palette. Noise is pretty noticeable; what ISO were you using?

[Bill Dix]

You got a nice incoming flight pose, and made the most of it. The red eye really pops with an otherwise subdued color palette. Noise is pretty noticeable; what ISO were you using?

Oops, forgot to include the ISO. It was 2000. I tried another PP version, with some Topaz Denoise on the bird, which helped the noise but left the breast looking too smoothed out. I might try again just on the near underwing.

[Dumay de Boulle]

Not sure if this is a large crop or you lightened in PP but the noise is very visible under the wing and on the body, and the IQ is lacking (very little detail visible)..Comp looks good

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice comp and pose, but too bad the noise is so pronounced. Was the image originally underexposed? Seems +0.7 EC would not be enough with such a white scene (keep in mind I'm used to Canon...)

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Love the incoming gliding pose with nice background. Wish you had a better light and the image looks a bit underexpose.

[Bill Dix]

Nice comp and pose, but too bad the noise is so pronounced. Was the image originally underexposed? Seems +0.7 EC would not be enough with such a white scene (keep in mind I'm used to Canon...)

The histogram in ACR showed room at both ends, maybe the result of the dull light. I didn't correct the exposure in ACR, but after conversion I pinched in the Levels sliders on both right and left ends, perhaps having the same effect as adjusting for underexposure?? Here's a repost that gets rid of some of the noise, but doesn't fully resolve the poor IQ.

[gail bisson]

Repost is a huge improvement. I really like the incoming angle and clean BG. Well done, Bill!

[Arthur Morris]

Nice comp and pose, but too bad the noise is so pronounced. Was the image originally underexposed? Seems +0.7 EC would not be enough with such a white scene (keep in mind I'm used to Canon...)

Hey Dan, I have found that though Nikon in general needs less plus than Canon that many Nikon folks fail to push their exposures far enough to the right in light scene/low light situations... Not sure why.

[dankearl]

Bill, A perfect flight angle to me and for iso 2000, the repost works for me. Nice work at both capture and processing.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all for commenting. I appreciate the feedback.