Mega High Key White Tern

This mega-high key image was first inspired by a Todd Gustafson Cheetah image that he intentionally over-exposed four stops on a bright sunny day. All that you saw against the over-exposed background were the eyes, the bright pink gums,. and the yellowed teeth–everything in shadow. When I shared a Laysan Albatross image of the same ilk at the introductory Midway slide program everyone loved it. Then Paul Mckenzie suggested that the same approach might work well with a White Tern on a bright sunny day. So I tried it.

This image was created with the Canon 800mm f/5.L IS lens, a 25mm Extension Tube, the 1.4X III TC, and the Canon EOS-1D Mark IV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering at +2 stops: 1/400 sec. at f/11 set manually.

The original image was intentionally over-exposed at creation and lightened further during conversion. I did lots of bill clean-up as the bird’s beak was a mess.

Note: if you put the extension tube in front of the TC as I did here you will be able to focus closer than if the TC were mounted in front of the tube. You will however need to focus manually. These situations are discussed in detail in ABP II (916 pages on CD only).

The above was adapted from tonight's blog post, Minor Surgery...

Yowza! That's great! I can just make out the bird's head and neck and the eye and bill are amazing like that. I love images like this. Seriously high key... And a high five... :5

Hey Artie, great OOTB image - and even more so when one realizes that it was planned from the start. I'll have to keep this in mind and see when an opportunity presents itself. Nice work and thanks as always for sharing.

Really nice looking OOTB image. Nice sharp details make this special.:S3: I am going to give this a try. I think what makes this so successful is the lovely colored bill.

Artie, this is so different from all your images I have seen! The hk perspective is awesome... I could imagine the head and neck after looking at it for a while.

:). It is good to have friends in high places!

Nice image and application, Artie,

Like the beak, but for some reason the eye seems to need work. Just doesn't do it for me. Maybe the irregularity of the feathers around it, or the darkness of the eye. Not sure. There is awesome sharpness in the beak, but the eye just seems out of sync. It just strikes me as it could be improved. But then again, Your image ... Your vision and you have more of either than I will ever have! :w3

If you do not like the eye in the posted image you should have seen it in the ORIG; a black pit :)

Fabulous! Yet another inspiration for my next trip out. No end of white birds to photograph here in central Florida.

This is fabulous. Very cool technique - love it. Glad the surgery went well too :S3: