Anhinga Pair

[Wendy Kates]

I captured this image at Viera Wetlands outside of Orlando, just before sunset. The image raises a few technical issues about which I would welcome your input. I shot it with my Canon 7D, which tends to be a little noisy. What techniques do people find helpful in balancing noise reduction and consequent impact on sharpness? I first reduced the noise in CS6, and then used Nik software to sharpen it. The other issue has to do with focus: when you capture an image of two birds interacting, where do you focus? I focused on the bird on the right, but that appears to be to the detriment of the bird on the left. Would a smaller aperture have helped?

300 mm f/4 lens with 1.4x extender
f 5.6
1/640s
ISO 400
Shot from a car, using a beanbag for stabilization
I was fairly far away so the image is cropped about 50%

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Wendy,

I like the look and feel of this picture, good timing and as I always say, you shoot the light not the subject. The 7D can be noisy and I use 400 often maybe 500/600 on occasion. One of the best techniques to help with noise is to expose as far to the right as possible without clipping and perfect your noise reduction post processing with adjustment layers.

Two subjects can be a challenge as well and there are a couple of options to assist with capturing both subjects. The most notable (as you mentioned) is a narrow aperture (f/8,..f/11) and/or a focus point with center sensor where both subject are in the same plane (beaks touching). On balance, you did well with this one and the answers to your questions are practice and continue posting. Arm yourself with reading material like "The Are of Bird Photography" and "Digital basics". Keep em coming,..you are on the right track.

One more thing: consider cropping a small layer from the bottom (smooth the perch edges), straighten the perch and watch large crops,..they hurt image quality.

[Ian Cassell]

Wendy, this is a beautiful subject and well handled. You might consider getting a copy of Arash's noise-reduction monograph. One thing you have to be careful of is reducing noise to the same degree on your birds as the background. I mask out the subject and do NR on the BG and then go lightly, if at all, with NR on the subject. Sharpening is about my final step in PP. As Jeff said, shoot to the right and your noise problems deminish. I routinely shoot at ISO 400 on the 7D, but often go to 800, and just need to be careful to keep the histogram over to the right side.

One other nit I want to mention. Your watermark is quite overpowering and draws the viewer's eye. If you feel the need to watermark, consider a small, inobtrusive one.

[Diane Miller]

A very nice catch of two interacting. I agree with the above comments and would also consider taking some off the left and right. You have a basically vertical subject.

I wonder if there is more detail to be found in the shadows, but that might cause some noise.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Good points from Di too,..the subject is centered. There are many noise reduction plug inns (topaz) to supplement PS. I do not have CS6 (will next week) but many use that applications internal noise processing. Just watch the histogram, stay in the 400 - 700 range and use a solid NR setting for example strong as needed.

TIP: often photographers will underexpose the shot to protect the bright parts and will compensate by moving the slider in post processing to add a stop or more of light. Doing this adds noise as well, thats why getting the exposure correct is important.

[Wendy Kates]

Thank you, all, for your feedback...it was all very helpful. Since working with a pro bird photographer (Andy Nguyen) when I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago, I've been trying to check the histogram after most shots to make sure the exposure is correct...it is really helping. Ian...I'll try to get hold of Arash's noise reduction monograph, as well as masking out the subject when I apply NR to an image. (If I can't find the monograph I'll message you for more info about it.) Re: my watermark: I think the problem is that I added a relatively high resolution watermark to the low res image for the web but I'll play with it.

[Jeannean Ryman]

Good critiques above. Just wanted to say I like the capture and interaction. As for noise, I struggle at times with it as well, but as Jeff mentioned, exposing to the right helps tremendously with noise. Underexposing will make it much worse (with any camera). I was recently shooting some migrant warblers with other photographers, and one told me I might want to adjust my exposure down since my photos seemed too bright on the LCD. I told him I was exposing to the right on purpose to reduce noise in the shadows. He replied, "oh good idea!" . ;) As long as you aren't blowing your whites, it's a lot easier to reduce exposure a bit in processing, than having to deal with a noisy file.