Tri-colored at Ding Darling

[Dennis Zaebst]

I captured this at Ding Darling in late January. I liked it because of the symmetry of the bird with its reflection.

Canon 1D Mark IV, ISO 1600
EF 500 mm f/4L IS
1/640 sec. at f/11
AV, evaluative metering +1/3 EV
tripod mounted with gimbal head
Heavily cropped (the bird was far away and could have used the 1.4x or a 2x TC); BG luminance smoothing in LR 4.3, some sharpening, clarity, and shadow enhancements.

Thanks for viewing and C/C appreciated.

[PhilCook]

Easy to see why you like it Dennis, refection is very good and liking the way just the tip of his beak is breaking the water surface, lovely bright eye as well. My only thought was it looks just a little grainy, probably as a result of a high ISO setting, but slightly underexposed. Just tad soft on the fine back feathers as well, this could also be could be from being slightly underexposed and the shadow lightening has brought out some graininess and softeneing.....but as you say the reflection is very likeable

[dankearl]

Nice image but the crop shows.
The bird is pretty noisy.
I would go for a lost less crop and I think you could retain IQ.

[Marina Scarr]

Lovely pose and reflection here. Agree the crop is apparent esp in the lack of details of the head. Not sure why the F11 on a straight 500mm lens. I can see it with a 2x TC though, and I think that would have been a good plan had you had the time to put the TC on. Sometimes it's best to get the capture as you did here, and then put on a TC to see if you can do even better. I am seeing quite a few details in the feathers on the bird's back and believe this image can be salvaged with property PP techniques.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very pretty light, bird and reflexion! Despite the large crop I find that this image has enough details, eye is sharp and interesting.

[Satish Ranadive]

In spite of off light angle face is nicely illuminated.Great reflection,nice details too.I like composition.

Regards,
Satish.

[Diane Miller]

There's a lack of sharp detail here, but not softness nor a noisy, offensive quality. I think with the reflection it's drop-dead gorgeous!! The lack of detail gives it a painterly quality.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks for your help everyone. I agree I goofed by not thinking of putting the TC on and getting a larger image. I too wondered why the setting of f/11 after I viewed the image in LR. I should have attached the 2x given the distance, kept it at f/11, adjusted the ISO downward, and reduced the shutter speed accordingly, since the bird was not moving.

I wonder if the attached is an improvement? I backed way off on the crop, and applied some additional NR to the bird. I also adjusted the color balance a little toward the blue. What do you think?

[Diane Miller]

The water is so beautifully clean, I don't mind having more of it included, although I'm not generally a fan of too much area where nothing is happening. The bluer color is nice. Instead of shifting color balance, you could work with just the blues in Hue/Sat or selective Color, without loss to the bird's color.

Still a drop-dead gorgeous image, for me.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thank you Diane. I used the adjustment brush to nudge the color balance, of the bird only, back toward the original color, while leaving the blues in the water. I also adjusted the crop to between the original post and the repost in pane #8.

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful pose in nice light. I especially like the way the light hits the head, and of course the tip of the bill in the water. And the fact that the reflected eye is clear. Third version works nicely for me -- perhaps lacking in some fine detail but not overly noisy. I think I caught this same fellow in a very similar pose back in November, but you got him in much nicer light.

[Marina Scarr]

Third version works nicely!

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thank you Bill and Marina.

I need to learn what are the limits of the 1D Mark IV when cropping. I guess the best way is to try different things and see how it goes. I'm still amazed at how much I can push the Mark IV and still retain some level of acceptable IQ. I believe I pushed it a little too far in the original post. Next time, I'll remember to try the 2X TC, especially since the "IV" still auto-focuses at f/8. I have even stacked 1.4X and 2X TC's together and the IV still happily focused, although much slower. Thanks again.