Albatross close up

[Alex Becker]

Hi all,

An albatross taken off the coast of Kaikoura, NZ. These birds come very close to the boat so I wanted to try to a close up shot of one focusing on the eye. I'm not really great on boats and with some pretty choppy water that day this was a real challenge keeping focus / my stomach. In hindsight I could've gone with more DOF and slower SS, but between the boat and bird moving I wasn't sure how much SS I would need so played it safe. Had to compress the image a decent amount to get down to 600 kb.

Camera: Nikon D500
Lens: 300 f/4 + 1.4 TC
Specs: 1/4000 ISO 2000 f/8

Thanks for looking and commenting on prior posts!
Alex

[Glenn Pure]

You didn't mention this was a self portrait, Alex. I can see your reflection in the bird's eye. While the DOF is limited, I doubt you could have done much better stopping down at that focal length and close range. Still, this is quite spectacular with that grey eye and the whites, greys and blacks around it. The eye detail is beautiful and tone and colour really nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

[John Mack]

The eye is tack sharp i can see the boat and i assume you in there. Exposure looks good as well as the details.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes, the eye is rather impressive, I love the sun just peeking in it at top of the iris. I agree more DOF would have good here, but I am immediately drawn to that eye anyhow.

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Alex, love the whites graduating to grey and black, and without repeating others, the eye is the focus point and takes this to another level. Well thought out and captured.

[Isaac Grant]

I really like what you were going for here. Nice tones. I do think that there is too much of the bird that is out of focus and I find it distracting.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Alex, I like the concept and overall colour palette, stoking detail in the eye, but I think you could get a bit more detail/definition from around the eye with some carful tweaks. Personally I think you were just a bit too close, backing off and increasing the DoF would have helped. Also with the bird being angle your doF needs to change.

TFS
Steve

[Alex Becker]

Thanks all -- really appreciate it. Off the top of my head, I think this was only like 10-15% crop or so, so I can look at tightening it up a little. Steve, I'll look at trying to bring out some more detail around the eye. It probably would have been worth it to take off the TC, as not much room to move around on the boat and still get a clear shot, but just didn't think about it at the time. Thanks again,

[Steve Kaluski]

Steve, I'll look at trying to bring out some more detail around the eye.

Alex, this is just from your OP, as you can see there is a huge amount there, so worth a revisit, it's just understanding in part, some of LR hidded stuff that runs in the background.

Bud, sorry just found a PM so have replied, apologies in the lateness, but the house has been a building site for the last 7 months and it has been rather manic. if you need more info drop me a line and email address and I will try to help.

cheers
Steve

[Alex Becker]

Hey Steve, thanks for the RP. I like what you've done with the eye / surrounding area as well as the beak making those areas. I'll take another look at those areas and try to bring out what you've done.

No problem on the PM, and thanks for the suggestions -- those look like some great options to check out and theres a good deal of flexibility in the timing in these trips for me, so no huge rush. Hope the house is coming along! Thanks again for the help,

Best,

[Steve Kaluski]

No problem on the PM, and thanks for the suggestions -- those look like some great options to check out and theres a good deal of flexibility in the timing in these trips for me, so no huge rush. Hope the house is coming along! Thanks again for the help,

You are most welcome Alex, if anything else comes to mind I will drop you a line, hopefully things will be 'fruitful', keep me posted.