Osprey - spread my wings

[Krish Naidoo]

Species
Common Name - Osprey
Scientific Name- Pandion haliaetus
Date- 10/01/2016
Location- The Entrance
Camera Details
Brand/Model- Canon 7D Mkii
Lens- Canon 100-400 Mkii @ 340
Camera Settings
Mode - Tv
ISO- 400
F-Stop- 5.6
Shutter Speed- 1/2000
Exposure Bias/Metering/Flash- 0/EV/0
Technique- HH
Attraction Aides- none
Post Production-
DPP - Reduced brightness and increased shadows Crop and export to PS.
PS - Resize for web


Notes-
Probably not the ideal pose for some, with very little head showing. I like the spread wing and tail from this angle. This was taken in January in my first hour with the 100-400. I was lucky to have this make an appearance.
Would like to hear what others think about the shot.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice to have captured an osprey with a just-caught fish. It would be more powerful for the viewer if the bird were flying toward you, but you do have a behavioral shot here. The bird is somewhat hidden by the tones of the water being quite close -- a frustrating situation. Maybe a different time of day would have given more separation, or trying to get in a position where the BG was more distant. But maybe this was a one-time opportunity? If it is a fairly repeatable behavior -- a place where they often fish -- it's worth hanging out there!

It looks sharp, and I'm surprised how much of the water is in focus at f/5.6. Good that you were able to use ISO 400, too.

The image is dark, with almost all the tonal values in the left half of the histogram. I would try an increase in Brightness and then if that makes the fish too bright, maybe do a second conversion with different settings, masked just to reveal the fish as a second layer in PS.

[Krish Naidoo]

Thanks Diane. Will try a few PS processing.


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[Diane Miller]

You need to go back to the raw conversion to do that much tonal change the right way. Dark and light tones and high contrast are glued into the file when it comes from the raw converter into PS, and then there is little leeway for good corrections.

If DPP doesn't give good tonal control, compare Adobe Camera Raw. If you're new to how to use the sliders, check out my tutorial on Lightroom Part 2 -- the engine and sliders are the same in LR and ACR. Link to tutorials is below my signature here.

[Adhika Lie]

I actually don't mind the much in focus water. For me, the brown and the blue are separated enough. And even though the bird is flying away from you, the eye make it up for me. I do wish the bird climbs a bit more so we can see that beautiful back. But that's probably asking the bird photography gods too much.

[Glennie Passier]

Krish, another great BIF! As Adhika as mentioned, the bird is flying away from you, but seeing the eye has made all difference fore me. Love the wing spread and of course, the fish is a big bonus. Looks like a very nice little whiting.

Keep them coming!

[Robert Kattanek]

Great scene with the fish caught in those talons. Of course we might all wish for the bird to fly towards you, but as others said, that visible eye really makes this a very nice pose of the bird.
I also like how the spread wings are in the composition of the image.

Thank you for sharing, kind regards,

Robert

[Arthur Morris]

Good self-critique. And a great job on the exposure to avoid burning the WHITEs on the fish. Though you had bad luck with the wind, the rear view is pretty neat. The downstroke with the head raised would have been better.

a

[Krish Naidoo]

Thanks and appreciate the C&C.
I do have a series of wing positions from the burst but unfortunately no head shown.
Plan is to find a better point to shoot from at this location.



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[Arthur Morris]

YAW. Or, a different wind and/or a cloudy day.

a