Parasitic Jaeger

[Alan Murphy]

Parasitic Jaeger

Nome, Alaska

D800, 600, ISO 640, f5, 1/2500

[Lorant Voros]

Beautiful bird in a beautiful pose. This is a picture I'd love to see bigger to enjoy all details. Well done.

[arash_hazeghi]

perfect banking pose with excellent details and exp. well done

[gail bisson]

Another awesome shot. Love the perfect fanned tail. The dorsal view is superb and the bird is glowing.
Are the whites a bit hot?
I find your techs a bit different and am wondering why you were at F 5 and an ISO of 640?
Gail

[Karl Egressy]

Striking BIF image, Alan. Perfect banking pose, great light, load of details and great HA.

[Alan Murphy]

Another awesome shot. Love the perfect fanned tail. The dorsal view is superb and the bird is glowing.
Are the whites a bit hot?
I find your techs a bit different and am wondering why you were at F 5 and an ISO of 640?
Gail

Different? I shoot BIF with the bird smaller in the frame, so with the D800's cropping ability f5 was plenty of DOF. ISO 640 is super clean and with plenty of speed of 1/2500 I didn't want to go to 800 which starts to introduce noise in the darks.
Hope that helps.

[dankearl]

Excellent flight pose and details, Alan.
What a cool bird!

[Ofer Levy]

Excellent image! Stunning pose! If anything a bit more room top and bottom.

[Sidharth Kodikal]

Killer image, Alan. The clean dorsal view with excellent details along with the eye contact and that fancy tail put this over the top in my book.

[Marina Scarr]

This pose is to die for, Alan. The EXP is spot on and the details are simply amazing. Wouldn't mind a little more room top and bottom if you have it. There are so many details in those tail feathers, they look real.

[Maya Raut]

Superb flight shot !! Everything is perfect as always....

[Mark Young]

Wonderful pose.

[christopher galeski]

very nice banking pose,sharp good detail,loverly light.well done.

[PhilCook]

As soon as I pick my bottom jaw off the desk I'll smile at this great achievement....superb Alan !

[gail bisson]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the response. I don't understand how cropping an image and DOF affect one another? Can you please explain this to my simple mind?! How much of a crop is this image? I am really confused now...
Gail

Different? I shoot BIF with the bird smaller in the frame, so with the D800's cropping ability f5 was plenty of DOF. ISO 640 is super clean and with plenty of speed of 1/2500 I didn't want to go to 800 which starts to introduce noise in the darks.
Hope that helps.

[Lyle Gruby]

Fantastic shot, even has a really good HA.

[rajandesai]

Fabulous Alan.
Was this a handheld shot?

[Alan Murphy]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the response. I don't understand how cropping an image and DOF affect one another? Can you please explain this to my simple mind?! How much of a crop is this image? I am really confused now...
Gail

Hey Gail, when doing flight shots I try not to have the bird too large in the frame in case of clipping wings etc, so in the case of this image, I backed up so that the bird was smaller (not a problem with the 36 MP D800 as a 50% crop can still have a lot of detail) The further you back away with the same f-stop, the DOF on the subject increases. If I was close enough that the bird was filling the frame, I would probably need f8 to get the right DOF.

[Amol Khedgikar]

I learned something today....

So at that distance where do you try to focus? try strictly the eye or get something larger like breast/abdomen and hope the DOF gets it all in?

[gail bisson]

Aaah...I get it now! Thanks for claryfying Alan,
gail

Hey Gail, when doing flight shots I try not to have the bird too large in the frame in case of clipping wings etc, so in the case of this image, I backed up so that the bird was smaller (not a problem with the 36 MP D800 as a 50% crop can still have a lot of detail) The further you back away with the same f-stop, the DOF on the subject increases. If I was close enough that the bird was filling the frame, I would probably need f8 to get the right DOF.

[Alan Murphy]

I learned something today....

So at that distance where do you try to focus? try strictly the eye or get something larger like breast/abdomen and hope the DOF gets it all in?

Hey Amol,

At that distance it would be extremely difficult to get the focus sensor on the eye. I use one center focus sensor and just get it on the body. The DOF will be enough to render the whole bird sharp, especially in a banking pose such as the one I posted (not much dept to the subject)

[Amol Khedgikar]

Hey Alan ,

Thats very valuable information for me. Thank you for sharing it. Thank you also for sharing the thought process behind such shots. I am glad I was drawn to this shot in the morning and read the whole thread.

[Frank Schauf]

Very nice flight shot and great details.