Sandhill Crane Pleasing Blur

[Krishna Prasad kotti]

This image was taken at Bosque Del Apache, NM Last November.

I tried and failed lot of times to get wing blur with eye sharp. I think I was some what successful, the beautiful morning colors was bonus.

Nikon D500, 500mm f/4 + 1.4x TCII
ISO 100, f/6.3, 1/100 sec
Shutter Priority, +1 2/3 EV
Matrix Metering.

Post processing:- Cropped and add canvas for composition, NR

Let me know your comments.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks
Krishna

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Krishna, nice catch with a bit of pink in the other wise plain sky BG. I find the wing blur to be on the distracting side, it needs to have stronger motion IMO to make it more appealing or I rather have it sharp.

TFS

[Randy Stout]

Krishna:

Motion blurs can be a real challenge to get just the right balance of blur and sharpness. I am in the camp of the eye still has to be pretty sharp to make it work for me, and you certainly have managed that despite the shutter speed, so excellent panning technique.

Nice pink sky.

I get Arash's point about needing a bit more blur of the wings, to really imply the motion. Always a balance.

That is why we keep trying to get the 'perfect' shot!

Cheers

Randy

[Daniel Cadieux]

I like the colurs and early morning mood. Sharp on the eye. Good comp. I too see what Arash means. Pan-blurs are fun to experiment with that is for sure!

[Dorian Anderson]

I agree with Arash that shutter needed to be way faster or way slower, the latter for artistic look that I think
you were going for. Faded fink is nice though.

[Jake Levin]

I really like the background colours here! I agree with Arash that this is somewhat "in between" a sharp flight shot and a blur. The eye is certainly sharp even at 1/100, which says a lot about your technique in holding focus and following the bird in flight, so in the same situation I would go a few clicks slower and see what you get. Blurs are tricky! As far as composition and presentation goes everything looks spot on to me.