Shag Portrait

[William Dickson]

Canon 1DX
f/4 500mm
f/8
1/125
ISO 2000

One from a trip to the Isle of May yesterday.

[David Salem]

Fantastic looking portrait William! The raised crest and the feather detail look great but that green eye is really awesome, it looks like a polished emerald. Nice frame.

[John Robinson]

Thats a portrait and a half Will ! Really nice.

As mentioned the eye is a GEM in its ownright.
Good stuff.
JohnR

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Beautiful portrait, William. Nice and sharp and great BG.


Geoffrey

[shane shacaluga]

WOW!! Raised crest and green eye really make this one special. The greenish sheen on the feathers showing nicely

Very sharp features and BG works a treat

TFS

[Ihtisham Kabir]

Dramatic light and intense expression make this a memorable portrait. Thanks for sharing. Ihtisham

[Mike Poole]

Lovely portrait Will, the angle of the light gives this some extra punch and that eye is fantastic

Mike

[Joseph Przybyla]

Nice portrait, love the green eye. Our Cormorants here have a turquoise eye. Thank you for sharing, Will.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Will, love the IQ in this, and the light has really brought out the greens so well. The raised crest adds interest, and of course, the eye takes this over the top. Great work.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Will, I like the side profile and raised crown, but the techs aren't great 1/125SS (you a courting disaster), you need to think more about this aspect Will as I bet the RAW isn't sharp and I feel it's echoed in the OP, as I think the image looks a bit hammered through the PP stage?

Keep PPi to 400 and let Save for Web do the rest, the image will be better and still within the 400KB.

TFS
Steve

[keith mitchell]

You must be very pleased with this excellent shot Will,the IQ is spot on.

Keith.

[William Dickson]

Thanks for the lovely comments

Will

[Marina Scarr]

What a great portrait and a unique looking cormorant for sure! That emerald eye is amazing as is the crest so full of details. I am often shooting portraits at SS125 or less in low light. That said, I do believe Stev may be onto something with the RAW image here.

[Steve Kaluski]

That said, I do believe Stev may be onto something with the RAW image here.

IMHO - with the capabilities of the 1DX slow SS should be/are a thing of the past unless you have old camera bodies (or want a specific effect), even if you took the old 'rule of thumb', SS should have been at least around 1/500.

[Jonathan Ashton]

Sorry Will I missed this one. I like the frame very much and the crest looks great. Have you lifted the dark plumage very much or is it pretty much straight from the camera?
I have to admit it took a little while to develop the habit of increasing the shutter speed after I got a 1DX but it does make a difference. Your image looks good but I guarantee had you gone for say 1/1000 sec you would see the difference. I think we sometimes think what's the problem it is on a tripod and I have IS - well that's true but unfortunately the bird doesn't. I fully concede that sharp images are obtainable with relatively slow shutter speeds, I tend to take the faster ones first and if the opportunity presents itself I then go for slower speeds. Once again returning to the image whilst I like it I wonder if it has been slightly over-brightened? I have taken the liberty of sending a repost - WDYT?

[William Dickson]

Thanks for that comment Jon, I did lift the plumage a little, but not much, your repost looks good, more 'natural' and it shows the light, as it was. Thanks for that.
I have a couple at 1/500, 6.3 (but the tip of the bill was slightly OOF), ISO 3200, still to be processed. When I was using the 5D Mk3, I tried to avoid 3200, as I found it more difficult to process, esp the shadows. Hopefully my 1DX files will be better at that ISO

Will