I went to the Aransas National Wildlife refuge near Rockport, TX. this past weekend to try to see the Whooping Cranes before they head north. You have to take a boat out to the salt marshes across the bay to see them. We got on the boat at 7:30am and found a couple around 9:00am. Shooting conditions were challenging: bright sun and windy, top deck of the boat, tripod/gimbal/camera was lashed to the railing for security (good, but couldn't move it around), and about 10-12 other people either taking pics or using scopes. I was trying not to blow the highlights and succeeded in that, but the rest was a bit underexposed, so masked out the crane and did a curves adjustment on everything but the crane. It still seems "off" to me though. For once, I could have used a shorter lens as this was a full frame vertical shot. Any advice or suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Equipement and technical info: Nikon D7000/500mm f/4-P w/16A modified TC (modified to allow auto focus when close focused-new to me and helps my bad eyes ;), tripod setup already stated @ 1/1600, f/5.6, ISO 250.
Hi Jeannean, you did a nice job with the difficult conditions. The whites are under control and you did the right thing by exposing for them. I agree that you could have used less glass, as the feet and tail could use more room. I think your exposure techs look good, I might warm the image up a bit with color temperature. In a perfect situation you wouldn't have the foliage and shore line intersecting the bird. You have the basics covered here, keep them coming!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Kerry, you nailed what was "off" for me...the warmth! Thank you so much for the suggestion. Doh! Here's a repost with a + to the yellow tint slider in LR4.
Last edited by Jeannean Ryman; 03-05-2013 at 10:27 PM.
Hi Jeannean- Great to see such a rarity. I must get to see them one day- maybe when they are in Canada.
For me I would like to see the subject given more room in the frame. If this is all you had it's difficult to add canvas in this case. I would bump up the saturation some.
Thanks John. It was full frame (ie no crop, not full frame sensor :), so adding canvas would be the only solution, and in this case, not a very good one. It's not a very pretty shot, and getting to them isn't easy, so I had to take what I got at the time. They sure are some BIG birds!
Whooping Crane
Here's a repost with a + to the yellow tint slider in LR4.
