Preening Puffin with the 200-400

[Arthur Morris]

This preening Atlantic Puffin image was created about a week ago on the first UK Puffins and Gannets IPT with the tripod-mounted Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Lens with Internal 1.4x Extender (with the internal TC in place), the Canon 1.4x EF Extender III (Teleconverter) (at 728mm), and the Canon EOS-1D X). ISO 800. Evaluative metering +1 stop (in cloudy bright sidelight from our right): 1/200 sec. at f/13.

Central sensor (by necessity)/AI Servo-Expand/Rear Focus AF e bird’s eye was active at the moment of exposure. Click here if you missed the Rear Focus Tutorial. Click on the image to see a larger version.

Many might enjoy the "The First Step in Taming the WHITEs blog post here.

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments are welcome. Microscopic or LAB color analyses are not needed .

[Randy Stout]

Artie:

Soft light, with great feather details, rich color details, nice preening pose.

How plentiful and approachable did you find the birds at your location?

Cheers

Randy

[Richard Flack]

Beautiful image Arthur. The detail is awesome and you nailed the exposure. TFS

[Karl Egressy]

My first impression is the details in the head feathers and beak. Perfect exposure on both dark and white. Beauty shot.

[vishaljadhav]

Amazing exposure
i love the IQ, seems you were still close
the exposure looks spot on Arthur bhai

[Gary Kinard]

I know I am the odd man out here. But, looking at the equipment my first thought was. This could of been taken with any modern lens in good light.
I do not like the close crop personally. I would of rather seen it opened up. I like open shots showing the whole bird, it tells a bit of a story when you can see more.
Perfectly excecuted shot. And a beautiful bird.
Cheers, Gary

[Arthur Morris]

Artie:

Soft light, with great feather details, rich color details, nice preening pose.

How plentiful and approachable did you find the birds at your location?

Cheers

Randy

Thanks Randy. Nor zillions of photographable puffins but lots more than we needed. Some at close range. But lots of other great species and opps.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Amazing detail, spot-on exposure and nicely composed Artie. TFS.

[Joe Murphy]

A lovely detailed shot, there is a visible line on the top of the head, & on the upper chest where the whites have been selected & toned down.

[William Dickson]

Very ARTIstic

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice preening pose with great detail in both whites and blacks. I may put a bit more space between the chest and the right edge of the frame

[Arthur Morris]

A lovely detailed shot, there is a visible line on the top of the head, & on the upper chest where the whites have been selected & toned down.

Thanks Joe. Though I do not see any clear lines I did have problems with the WHITEs in this image. This version is much improved from the version that I originally posted on my blog here; your comments have inspired to re-convert this one and start from scratch. My problems arose from the fact that the light, though fairly soft, was from the right.... That left the breast well brighter than the face but for the bright spot that you mentioned on the head. When I have some time I will post a hopefully better version.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Arthur I like the relaxed pose and fine compostion but find the image a tad over sharpened. Did you use detail extractor by any chance? Also there´s a dust bunny right next to the neck where the white meets the black on the right hand side. I always check my images at 100% to try to find the offending dust bunnies! :)

[Satish Ranadive]

Arthur Sir, Gorgeous portrait. Very nice preening pose with absolutely superb fine details.

Regards,
Satish.

[Joseph Przybyla]

Beautiful bird, wonderful pose. Thank you for sharing.

[nick clayton]

I love the sharp feather detail helped by the low light and the killer pose!

[Martin Dunn]

Nice capture Artie.
Wonderfully intimate image of a very photogenic bird.
Super detail.

[adrian dancy]

The preening pose is very nice but a bit more room to right needed IMHO.
The head down to the bill look superb.
Points already noted on the whites.
The feather details below the bill have a slightly scratchy quality, noise/over sharpened perhaps?
I hope you enjoyed you UK trip.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for your thoughtful comments. In retrospect, I believe that I went with too much Detail Extractor. I should have time today to re-do this one from scratch. I will not be adding any of the available room on the right for two reasons: as a general rule I do not like boxy crops and in addition, adding more dead space on the right would hurt the compositional balance with the bird facing out of frame left. IMO.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks all for the kid comments and the very helpful constructive criticism. The original post was definitely over-crunched in NIK.

[nick clayton]

I must admit I sometimes find it difficult to know how far to go with detail extractor and tonal contrast, it's comforting to know even the teacher gets it wrong occasionally