Juvenile Northern Pintail (Anas acute) at the Bosque del Apache
Greetings,
The cranes are leaving central New Mexico. I must needs find another subject. I've begun experimenting at a familiar place, the Bosque del Apache. As I drove around the area yesterday I spotted no Sandhill Cranes on land or water. None. There were some in the air and thousands at the Bernardo Wildlife Area. But that's another story.
There is a pond just as you pass the ticket booth, on the left. There are almost always birds there, and most often a variety of them. That's where I found this one.
ORIGINAL
1DX, 500mm f/4, 2X TE
HH / car
1/2000, f/8, ISO 2000
Eval metering, + 1 stop
Single point expanded auto, AI servo
H -
S +
W +
B -
Sharpened in PS: smart sharpen
Big crop, medium-high ISO, little noise. Thanks, Canon.
Well, a new chapter for me. Closer would be better, and I've thought of a way to do it. Lower POV, too. Same with closer. Help me get started, please.
Jim...if you're looking for ducks, head for Socorro, NM, its a short drive from Bosque.
Then find New Mexico Tech. Next to the Macey Center off of Olive Lane is a duck pond.
When I was there a few years ago there were dozens of ducks and such, including Widgeons.
You did well with finding another subject, Jim - these birds are beautiful. Your exposure looks good. I like your comp, and the water is lovely. The bird seems not quite sharp to my eyes, maybe due to the large crop? I can also see a version with some off the bottom. TFS and keep them coming.
Jim, it seems like ages since you've posted! Your duck has no legs!
You have those lovely tans and blues happening here again. Just lovely. I love the little, see through ripple running down his side and the detail in the penciled feathers. The water droplets on his head and body are a big bonus. You have some really big numbers in your exif detail! He does look a tad soft.
"Closer would be better, and I've thought of a way to do it" I wonder what you have in mind?
I need to go back to the beginning. I cannot even identify the bird. And it's out of focus. Basics. It's not out of focus, at least it doesn't appear that way to me, in LR. But it surely does here. I'm sending the long lens and TE to Canon for calibrating. We'll see if that helps. Meanwhile I'm going to work on basics before posting again. Thanks for the help.
Jim, If you're seeing things as OK in LR...that's great. It must be something that you are doing in the PP and getting the image ready for the web. Sending your gear to Canon won't fix the problem.
I can give you a rundown on my "step by step" after all adjustments are done and I think there is nothing else to do but post. Let me know, Jim. It's gotta be something very simple that you're doing.
The duck pond in Socorro was also good when I was there a few years ago, but we were mobbed by ducks hoping to be fed. My husband tossed out some food and I tried to work a few stragglers. It was too cold to concentrate, though. I've heard the ABQ zoo is good, too.
Glennie is right -- if it's sharp in LR at 100% then any problem is downstream. Its not the lens. But the slightest vibration from handholding even at 1/2000 sec can cause softening. There was a long thread a while back about softening from thermal turbulence, too. Shooting out of a warm car (or through an open window in a house) into cold air can cause softening, sometimes to a very noticeable extent, as heated air pours out into your optical path. Getting closer will help all those issues to varying degrees.
When I'm handholding long focal lengths I want to use the smallest focal point I can for the small subject, but I have a lot of trouble keeping it where it should be. Are you using AI Servo to compensate for slightly changing distances to the subject?
And a JPEG downsized and displayed in a browser isn't going to give a perfect rendering of the original raw sharpness.
Keep persisting -- it will come together! But start with closer subjects without the TC, then go to the 1.4X. Experiment by shooting a flat target like a magazine page with very fine print glued to cardboard and oriented in the plane of focus.
Juvenile Northern Pintail (Anas acute) at the Bosque del Apache
