Early morning at the Salton Sea State Recreation Area - inner harbor. This one wasn't too far away. Posed for me for about a half hour and left just as the sun rose high enough to touch those emerald feathers.
Canon 1DX, 500mm f/4. 1/2000, f/4, ISO 3200. Retouched in Lightroom and cropped to 70-80% of the original. I am eager to read your C & C.
Well named! I'm seeing what appears to be some loss of fine detail, probably from the high ISO, although I'd expect the 1DX to do better. Looks like you had an issue with the bird being underexposed relative to the BG. The left edge of the perch is quote hot. (That's happened to me a few times!)
Look like you should have had enough SS to capture details sharply, so I'm curious about the processing. Or maybe the DOF was limited and focus didn't hit the right spot? Hard to tell from here. Have you done focus microadjustment?
Hi Jim, hope all is well. The shot has a few issues. One, like Diane mentioned, it looks like it was over exposed and then brought back. This usually has some loss of detail associated with it.
Two, is that I wouldn't go with that high of ISO for a static subject, maybe for anticipating a flight shot. I would have been at maybe ISO 1250 and at 1/1000th or something.
I almost never push my ISO on my 1DX above 1600 and even at that it needs to be in the right BG. Hope this helps. See ya soon. Remember the workshop I mentioned to you this spring. It will improve your stuff by leaps and bounds. Good luck
Come join me for a Custom Raptor Workshop starting this November 2019- January 2020.
P.M. me to inquire on dates, pricing and availabilities. Thank You. www.davidsalemphotography.com
I fell in love with this bird. It wasn't far away, and it sat for me for quite some time. I let that obscure the problems with the processing. As usual at this site, I learn a lot and I'm grateful for the comments here. One of my takeaways is to see more clearly. I often find that difficult.
And, David, it's nice to hear from you. I want to take your workshop and am convinced it is just what I need. I'm going to be practicing handheld shooting with big lenses. A problem for me.
I'm posting another image of the same bird on the same perch. The only one I have with the sunlight directly on the feathers.