Blue-Eyed Shag Blast Off

Also know as a King Cormorant, the image was made after a long hike up to the breeding grounds for the Albatross and penguins on New Island, Falkland Islands. I will be posting further images of the birds and the location.

I know it is tight on the right.

Camera: 7D
Capture date/time: 1 Jan 10; 10:42AM
Light condition: overcast
Lens: 70-200 f/4
Focal length: 154
Extender: 1.4x
Distance: 7.4m
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no
ISO: 800
Exp Prog: Tv
Speed: 1/1250 sec
Aperture: f/14
Exp Comp: +1/3
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: AI Servo
Tripod: no
Filter: None
Crop: 40% +-
Image Changes:

Processed in LR 3 and CS5, Topaz DeNoise, Viveza and Pixel Genius Sharpening.

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

Very nice moment, but too bad his right wing is cut off. In the right wing there's also noise

I like the comp and action about to happen Jay! I agree with Thijs regarding the noise in the right wing but the RW is not cut off. Thijs, you can scroll to the left and see the whole wing (which is a tad close to the edge for me:p)

Jay:

Dynamic pose, good looking bird, interesting perch.
Perhaps a bit more positive EC would have helped keep the noise in check.

Look forward to some more!

Randy

Intersting pose and nice sharp details, Jay. Agree with Randy re +EC. Fill flash may have also been useful.

Thanks guys,

If you look at the landscape (http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...lkland-Islands), you can approximate where I was standing. The large rock, RHS middle of the image, is where the shag was perched. All of a sudden I saw him and started to "get ready" when he decided to fly. Distance too great for fill flash; so hard to know when to attach the flash and the beamer. :D

Definitely could have applied more EC.

Artie suggests exposure is easy when you know the priciples; I have reread his stuff and others so many times. Just a thick head, I guess. Correct exposure is so hard for me. One of my long-term goals is to spend a week with Chas just working on light and exposure.

My brother suggested I "dodge" the head a bit more to bring out the eye.

Dodging was going to be my tip too mate. What do you mean too far for flash? I usually leave mine on and beamer just for things like this (well, similar scenario is what I mean). Histogram, lean towards the right, that's all there is to it. Hopefully I'll see you in about a year and will be happy to spend time with you going over stuff and I WON'T charge you a cent! :o

Is this a big crop at all? Just curious because if you have room all around, I'd leave some on the RHS as it's a bit tight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ákos Lumnitzer

Dodging was going to be my tip too mate. What do you mean too far for flash? I usually leave mine on and beamer just for things like this (well, similar scenario is what I mean). Histogram, lean towards the right, that's all there is to it. Hopefully I'll see you in about a year and will be happy to spend time with you going over stuff and I WON'T charge you a cent! :o

Is this a big crop at all? Just curious because if you have room all around, I'd leave some on the RHS as it's a bit tight.

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Love that we can't get away from the old film days - "dodging": increase exposure/light to the area; "burning": decrease exposure/light to the area.

I will give it a go with Viveza - such a wonderful program.

Crop: none from the sides; top and bottom only.

Flash: Mate, if you would have seen me walking up the hill from the landing point with :2eyes2: the 300/7D mounted on the tripod over my shoulder, the 70-200/5D2 on the other shoulder, a waste pack and back pack - there was no way to walk and shoot along the way with the flash attached. :D

I possibly/probably could have attached after arriving at the top of the hill - over a mile - but then I would have to decide whether to attach to the 300 or to the 70-200.

There were many time that I did attach the flash/beamer to the 70-200 when I was walking around for a period of time. Worked beautifully.

Looking forward to shooting with you! :cheers:

Reworked based upon suggestions.

Jay,
I would agree with the comments re noise and exposure. Unfortunately the reworked version seems to be "overworked" in terms of noise reduction especially on the wings - there are some soft patches.
Regards
Andreas.