300 f/2.8L IS II/1.4X III/1D X Rocks!

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created at 9:44am on Saturday past on a partly cloudy very bright morning at Lake Blue Cypress with the hand held Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens, the Canon Extender EF 1.4X III, and theCanon EOS-1D X. ISO 640. Evaluative metering +1 stop of the light sky: 1/2000 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode. AWB.

Central sensor/AI Servo-Surround/Rear Focus AF squarely on the bird’s left eye as originally framed active at the moment of exposure. (This is a very small crop from the left and above.) Click here to see the latest version of the Rear Focus Tutorial.

For more on this image, click here.

To learn more about why I have been loving my 300 II, click here.

As for the image, don't be shy: all comments welcome.

[Ian Wilson]

Super shot Arthur - love the crispness of the image and the glaring eyes of the bird. Speaking of glare, looks like you have managed the difficult lighting to your advantage in the way you have processed the image. Well done! Cheers, Ian

[Joseph Przybyla]

Just smiles and shakes my head... and wonders what you will show me next. Thank you for sharing.

[Karl Egressy]

Wow, amazing pose and superb IQ. Love the wing stretch, fanned tail, open beak and stare.

[David Salem]

Fantastic pose with the open beak, forward eye contact and the great wing position. Jr looks like he is pretty relaxed:) The image looks a bit bright on my monitor. Maybe a third reduction? Nice shot.

[arash_hazeghi]

it does rock so does the landing osprey. what's the other juvi looking at?

[BenBotha]

The Juvi looks tired. The eye contact excellent. A bit bright on my monitor. The rest as always, top notch!

Ben

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think it is a great shot Artie but I would suggest it is a little overexposed, I think some of the whites are blown. WDYT?

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all. Especially Joe. I am struggling with brightness issues as I am working on a new laptop that looks a lot darker than my previous laptop.... So at times I over-compensate and surely have done so here. I need to look for the calibration device and software that I used to use regularly. Just for the record books, none of the WHITEs are blown in the optimized TIFF file.

When we looked at the juvie from a distance I was sure that it was dead. But it was just hunkered down.

ps: the position of the young bird in the frame was quite fortuitous.

[Binu John]

Stunning shot, Artie! Excellent landing pose, composition and IQ! TFS

[Arthur Morris]

I think that I figured out the gamma issues on the new laptop and while I was at it, I removed the single distracting stick, the one right in the middle. How is the brightness on this one?

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Artie - nice one with loads of feather detail and the "dead" one is a good bonus.
I still feel it is "way" too bright.
Watch the sharpening halos , my friend , became evident in my edit.
What i did was taking the red channel as selection - exposure adjustment in ACR - 0,5 stops ; plus exposure adjustment layer in PS CC - gamma set to - 0,85 - masked with red channel .

TFS Andreas

[Robert Hardy]

Stunning image Artie I do like your second best .
Rob.

[Jonathan Ashton]

I think an improvement Artie but for me still too bright.

[David Salem]

I agree, still too bright. Andreas is about right for me and my monitor. I Figure this feedback should help you to see what we are seeing. Good luck with the monitor calibration.
Could be as simple as the brightness on your monitor compared to what we are seeing, maybe its to low.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Cracker, Artie! I like the somewhat darker version Andreas posted most

[Arthur Morris]

Cracker, Artie! I like the somewhat darker version Andreas posted most

Thanks all especially Andreas. Hid darker version is excellent. But dear sir, the halos are yous :)

[Andreas Liedmann]

Hi Artie i am sorry but halos are from you sir , not from my edit.
For illustration took your op into PS added a levels adjustment layer and pushed the mid tone slider way to the right to make the halos visible . Hope you do not mind about clarifying this .
In the future i would suggest you can check this on your own .

Regards Andreas

[Arthur Morris]

Andreas, There is no obvious halo on the bird's back in the Pane 11 image. There is a very obvious halo on the back in your repost in Pane 12. I am not at all interested in manipulating and image to see things that are not visible to the human eye in an image as presented :)

[Andreas Liedmann]

ok Sir will leave it that way

Regards Andreas