Arctic Tern

[John Ippolito]

Arctic Tern
Chugach National Forest, Alaska
D800 (1.2x crop mode) , 500/4 VR, ISO 800, f/4.5, 1/2500 slight crop

[Michael Rominger Jr]

Nice shot John! Never seen one of these birds before. Like the wing angle and position in the frame. The dinner items adds nicely to the image! Love the creamy BG and color also. Small nits are that there appears to be a bit of hotspot under the eye and possibly just a little sharpening artifact around the borders of the bird. Lovely work still the same!

[Daniel Cadieux]

Nice comp and diagonal flight angle. Nice to see the eye so clearly within the black cap. Great light and BG. A bit of noise on the far wing...did you need to recover some shadows under there?

[Nick Palmieri]

Nice capture, BG is awesome!

[Ofer Levy]

Lovely light, pose and BG. I can't see fine detail and wonder if it's the x1.2 crop or maybe a processing issue.

[dankearl]

Nice light and pose. I posted here before that the D800 crop modes are not as nice as Full frame images cropped in PP.
I was told that this makes no sense, but I can tell the difference. You should have more detail if it is a small crop.
Try shooting full frame, I think you will be surprised at the results.

[Joe Senzatimore]

Fine light and comp. in this image. Great plus to have the fish. BG is a bit bright , IMHO. Just my taste.

[Neil Nourse]

Beautiful light, and I love the background. Dinner does add a lot to this shot.

[Thanaboon Jearkjirm]

Bird in flight is never easy and you did very well here, focus is very good. Light seem harsh but you did well with in trying to bring out black and white details, especially around the head. The fish is a big bonus and what a lovely background. Don't know why but the shadow on the wings look blueish in color to me.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi John, I like the flight angle, together with the light and the catch. Im fine with the BG, infact I like the different shades of green.

[Rachel Hollander]

John - nice flight pose, sweet light and the meal adds to it. I like the bg too.

TFS,
Rachel

[Marina Scarr]

Killer pose, and the catch is a big plus. The BG for me is what really makes this image pop!!

[John Ippolito]

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.

Daniel C. I reprocessed the jpeg with a touch of tonal contrast. Maybe too much on the wing.

Ofer, and Dan - I am wondering about the 1.2 crop now.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent dynamic pose and the BG is great! Details do look a bit coarse but it's coming from the post processing.

[John Ippolito]

Thanks for the input, Arash. The TIF/Raw look fine in detail, but I lost it on the way.

[arash_hazeghi]

Thanks for the input, Arash. The TIF/Raw look fine in detail, but I lost it on the way.

If you are using the new CS6 you gotta be careful with resizing your photos (need to check "BiCubic" as opposed to "BiCubic Automatic") It has a negative effect on large files like the ones coming out of the D800.