Starting to slowly work through my UK photos so here is another from the first day. I have some more from this sequence with a full up wing position, but liked this 'bullet' wing position. In post, standard LR sliders, added some canvas to the left and then a very slight crop, NR and sharpened in PS. Overall pretty minor edits.
Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 200-500mm f/5.6 at 500mm
Specs: 1/3200 ISO 1800 f/6.3
Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex
Really nice shot Alex. pose, details and a mouth full of fish are all great. And I really like that brown and blue background. I do think the bird looks a bit thin, meaning that I would deepen the blacks just a bit and whiten the whites. I would go into selective color and add a few points of black to the blacks and remove some blacks from the whites. Should help to deepen the colors. Maybe add just a tiny bit more contrast as well or alternatively you could deepen the mid tones in levels or do a curves adjustment. Easy changes for a shot I would love to have. Very well done. On a separate note, that 200-500 is really a great value. You and others are killing it with that lens, especially combined with the d500.
Hi Alex, yep they are like speeding bullets as Will knows, so good call in position to shoot from and nailing one. Great to have them with Sand eels just adds to the capture. Techs look good and hopefully our brief chat has pushed you to not being afraid to go higher on ISO.
The image does have some colours within the post that you need to address (it's not clean) and I think you may have added Aquas rather than Blue? If you balance them out (in LR make a visual copy and get the WB right) reduce the Contrast then you will find detail getting better, the face in particular with these guys. The attached looks cleaner, but you loose the warmth in the beige, but that can be dealt with, it's just getting some of that colour out of the image.
Very nice flight frame! Head angle is just right, as is the wing position. I don't think he could fit any more fish into his mouth if he tried! I prefer the version with more contrast.
I like what Steve has done to an already impressive image. Very sharp, good pose (but hope to see the full raised wings one too), and the mouth full of food is a great addition.
Thanks all! Greatly appreciate the comments and suggestions.
Isaac -- I often feel like my shots are a bit flat so thank you for the suggestion on specifically how to adjust that. I'll revisit the image in PS and give that a try. I'm very happy with the 200-500 especially with the D500 -- I saw a lot of comments on the internet saying the AF was too slow for BIF but usually if I miss a shot it's user error not the kit. I've been slowly saving up for a used 500 or 600 f/4 G version but primarily for the extra stop and extra reach / ability with a TC.
Steve -- feel pretty good pushing the ISO to about 4k if I have to, but less comfortable processing files above that. Thanks for the RP as well -- I see what you mean on the colors. I'll play around with those suggestions in LR too.
Thanks all again -- much appreciated and very happy to get such great feedback!
Alex
Puffin in flight
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