Shad Woe

[Bill Dix]

Shooting these DC Cormorants is a bit like Whack-a-Mole. You never know where they'll surface, and when they do, they devour their catch in a second. You just have to guess right and start firing. I wasn't sure how to crop this one. I would usually put more space in front of the bird, but I liked the water behind. C&C appreciated.

D7000, 500f4+1.4, ISO 2000, 1/320s @ f/7.1, +3.0 EV, fill flash, tripod

[dankearl]

Awesome, Bill, the PP is pretty cool and I like the crop.
A great angle for the bill and the fish.

[Bill Jobes]

Great exposure on the cormorant's colorful detail, Bill. And the position of the doomed fish is really cool.

I find it very interesting that the wake waves produced color and detail in the water, while the water to the front and deep side of the bird is high-keyed.

Did you do anything in processing to bring out the blue-gray water ?

I happen to like the crop, though some may favor more territory in front of the bird.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Great capture Bill, love the timing, I have a reservation over the perimeter of the bird - there appears to be a fine dark line, is this a some kind of sharpening artefact?

[Bill Dix]

Great exposure on the cormorant's colorful detail, Bill. And the position of the doomed fish is really cool.

I find it very interesting that the wake waves produced color and detail in the water, while the water to the front and deep side of the bird is high-keyed.

Did you do anything in processing to bring out the blue-gray water ?

I happen to like the crop, though some may favor more territory in front of the bird.

Thanks Bill. I didn't do anything to bring out the blue-gray water (other than some NR on the smooth water, and a little selective sharpening on some of the rippled area). I think the high-key is just the result of a lot of glare off the smooth water, which is dispersed by the rippled water. Does that make any sense?

[Bill Dix]

Great capture Bill, love the timing, I have a reservation over the perimeter of the bird - there appears to be a fine dark line, is this a some kind of sharpening artefact?

Thanks Jonathan. The edge condition is not from sharpening, but is happening in the camera. I believe it is Chromatic Aberration, or the dreaded "purple fringe", which I've found on other images with a lot of contrast between subject and background, especially when using the TC. It was worse on the left side of the neck before I removed some of it in PP, but I didn't take it all out. I don't know if anyone has any suggestions.

[Ofer Levy]

Nice bahaviour shot! You did a great job with the exposure control in here!

[Jim Crosswell]

Nice image Bill! I like the crop, catch and blue eye.

[Brendan Dozier]

Very cool shot, Bill! Love the high-key look to it, and the fish half way down the gullet. Nice one!

[Bill Jobes]

Thanks Bill. I didn't do anything to bring out the blue-gray water (other than some NR on the smooth water, and a little selective sharpening on some of the rippled area). I think the high-key is just the result of a lot of glare off the smooth water, which is dispersed by the rippled water. Does that make any sense?

It sure does, Bill -- thanks. I guess the turbulence in the wake created reflections and shadows that facilitated the revealed colors.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Neat scene, and yes the exposure control was well handled. I like the position of the fish in the mouth as it gets gulped down. Some raw converters have a chromatic abberation correction in them and can be useful. I do think sharpening did enhance whatever you saw in the raw file too though.

Comp-wise I could see abit more left, top, and bottom...but still effective as is.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you Ofer, Jim, Brendan and Daniel.

Daniel, I discovered the CA correction feature in ACR (thanks, I believe, to a previous image comment from you) after I had processed this image, thus didn't use it here. It seems to allow you to adjust the color of the fringe, making it less noticeable, but certainly doesn't remove it altogether. I suspect you're right that sharpening did exacerbate the fringe. I also might have preferred more room at the bottom of the image, but didn't have it here. Thanks for the comments.