Royal Tern that is. Sony A900~Sony 500 F4 G~Sony 1.4x~ISO 1600~F/6.3~1/1600 sec~manual exposure~strong overcast~hand-held~Texas City Dike~12-9-2012-CS6 /ACR
Comments, suggestions, critique welcomed. regards~Bill
Good job on a fun behavioral image. I have always found bathing terns to be great fun to photograph, and not as easy as some might suspect. You did well to get a clear eye here without water splash in front of it, and I do like the water splash that you do have in the image. I am seeing quite a bit of noise in your BG, I suspect from the ISO 1600. I would consider a round of noise reduction (NR) on the BG only. The other thing I am noticing is a slight yellow cast in your entire image. I would suggest a +6 in a color balance layer on your yellow/blue scale. As you move the slider from one side to the other, notice how the colors in your change.
My suggestion is maybe try a different crop. With the head in the center and his wings pointing
more to the left, I'd be inclinded to try and add some canvas to the left and maybe just a bit
more room on the top.
The splash on the right hand side of the frame balances the composition nicely. Marina hits the spot as usual with the noisy BG. I like the clarity you got on the eye, great job on this action shot all round for me!
I like this composition with the right-hand water splash balancing out the left-hand wings. Focus is spot on. I have to wonder what the pattern reflected in the tern's eye represents. More splashing water?
Appreciate the comments and suggestions, as always. Marina, thank you very much for the specific color balance advice, and indeed the ISO 1600 did result in noise, which I should have addressed. Upon closer examination, which I didn't do when processing and posting the image at 1:00 am, I think more than the background needs NR, especially the wing feathers.
Cropping suggestions sound good to me. Nancy; about the eyes. Basic lighter sky, darker ground, with digital noise. Since noise effects darker tones much more than lighter tones, eyes are very susceptible to noise at high ISOs and I should have, at a minimum, selectively applying NR to them. regards~Bill
Love the composition and this is well done,..you have a good eye to capture these fantastic moments in the life of nature - what a great way to use a camera - really like this one!
ps - maybe some additional NR with a mask to push it completely over the top.
Bathing Royal
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