Canon 1D iv, 400mm f/5.6, hand held, ISO 800, 1/1250 second @ f/5.6, manual mode. I captured this image yesterday at 8:25 am along the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone County, Montana. I spent most of the day with a pair of Osprey's and I really enjoyed observing them as they methodically scavenged nest building materials. I watched one of the pair fly into the cottonwood canopy and break a large branch off while in flight. It was also kind of comical to witness half of the lumber fall to the ground as they tried to integrate the wood into their nest. In any case, I feel like I succeeded with this image; I like the pose, detail, quality but I am unsure about the shadows under the right wing and the boring background. Process in LR 5, highlights and whites both down, NR +19, sharpen +5, out of camera saturation/color (not adjusted), 40% crop. Please critique. Thanks steve
Excellent pose with good light. They do keep an eye on photographers, don't they.
When it's already a big crop most people will leave a little more room, but good to see the subject big here for critique. Not much to do about the sky BG -- it makes it easier to focus, though. You could add some clouds if you were so inclined, but make sure they are appropriately out of focus. You might saturate blues a little more but I don't mind soft skies. Better underdone than too much.
You have good detail in the underwing shadow. You might lighten it a little more with the Shadows slider but that will bring out noise. Increasing Exposure causes less noise than pulling up Shadows so I try to start there and then bring down Highlights.
I think he means manual exposure. That's an autofocus lens.
Looking at it again, the contrast is a little flatter than ideal. I wouldn't bring whites down. Highlights yes, and exposure if necessary. This is one to play with the tonalities -- there may be a somewhat improved version.
Osprey, (Pandion haliaetus)
