I was excited to get fairly close to this little guy at Bombay Hook De. this week.......processed in LR4 and CS5........cropped by about 50%. Comments please!
Nikon D3s
1/400 sec @f7.1
ISO 200
500 mm f4
Kingfisher
I was excited to get fairly close to this little guy at Bombay Hook De. this week.......processed in LR4 and CS5........cropped by about 50%. Comments please!
Nikon D3s
1/400 sec @f7.1
ISO 200
500 mm f4
Bob,
These guys are always a treat to see - nice field technique getting so close. Two things come to mind in the preliminary review (1) whites on the neck are blown and (2) perch is too long and tugs my eye off the subject. Use the old piece of paper trick. Take a sheet of paper and place it over the screen experimenting with alternative crops and consider reposting. I might crop from the right and bottom forcing the eye back on the subject. I like the overlook perspective and do not think the crop should be too tight.
By using ISO 400 you could have utilized 1/800 shutter as well and helped reduce the hot pixies. Remember when the ISO is doubled a stop of light is gained and with the Nikon 400 is easily within exposure range. Keep em coming, I like the mood of the photograph very relaxing with a good feel.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 09-23-2012 at 01:36 PM.
Hi Bob, you caught an elusive bird for sure here. Good observations by Jeff but I have to point out that doubling the ISO as well as the shutter speed (actually cutting the light by half) would not change the exposure; the net exposure change would be zero. You would have had to go to 1/1000 or greater to reduce the exposure.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com
Kerry...Thanks for pointing out the exposure would be the same....I thought so. As far as cropping......I am reluctant to crop any further as i stated I have already cropped by 50%...wouldn't that affect image quality too much?
Bob, yes I agree that it would affect IQ adversely and my suggestion was perhaps hasty. The better solution would be to add more magnification, which is not always practical from a financial perspective. The teleconverters are a good way to bring the subject closer without breaking the bank. Even if you have them though, it is difficult to know when to have them on the lens! You just never know in the field what is going to happen. I am not familiar with Nikon hardware, but I think the converters are quite good.
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com
Increasing the ISO to 400 means you need less light and allows more flexibility with the shutter/aperture providing options especially helpful in low light. I have seen some pros use ISO 200 in this case the hot pixels could be fixed with a faster shutter. Assume the histogram was clipped on the right as well.
A 50% crop is really pushing it,.. this s not bad for such a high number. As a general rule try and have the subject represent at least 15/20% of the original frame size.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 09-24-2012 at 05:37 PM.
Thanks for the comments folks!
Love these little guys, have seen quite a few in the wild but have never been able to close in on any. Good color and clarity here. I concur with the crop, my suggestion would be experiment different aspect ratios,subject position to shorten the length of the branch on the right somewhat. While I'm not familiar with the "usable" D3s ISO range, I would think acceptable results could be had to at least 640 on 50% crops with careful noise reduction. Congratulations Bob on a wonderful capture!
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