I like this image and I don't like it, so I'll see what you folks have for thoughts / comments.
I was trying to capture a common tern as it came back into the grass area nests.
I watched for quite some time, attempting to decide how best to accomplish this.....too low on the approach and the bird would be behind the high grass. To small of a lens aperture and the DOF became to great, not giving me the background blur I wanted to achieve, yet also not giving me as much definition on the farthest away wing either.
Therefore I compromised and was fairly happy with the results, although I will certainly attempt to improve upon this particular type of image (Sorry Artie..I almost called it a shot!).
Nikon D300, 500 AFSVR, ISO 640, F 5.6, NearUniWB Preset, CW metering with +.3 EV compensation.
Beautiful image, Jim !
Given your objective, looks like an ideal compromise to me.
For this kind of image, I'd prefer to see a looser crop with more room on the sides in particular
(a bit on the left and a good bit more on the right) to include more of the environment.
The bill and feet are a bit oversaturated for my taste.
Like the flight pose in this image Jim and all your background history on this image. I like Mikes suggestions on a larger crop . Many thanks for sharing.
What don't you like about the image? The setting and landing pose look good. I wish the bird's left wing were a bit higher and agree regarding the oversaturation of beak and feet.
A) I always wear amber colored sun glasses when I shoot so my vision is skewed anyway :)
B) Seriously...when you've got breeding plumage / condition common terns birds with full sun on them...the reds are pretty darned intense.. I actual;y desaturated these down a bit prior to posting. A tad more and they instantly started to lose their ooomph. (Is there such a word?)
I think that my biggest concern overall was the extent of the OOF wing on the outboard side...but as I was trying to get this extent of blur on the background grasses, it was a conscious choice to see how it would work out.
All in all a nice image, Jim, with excellent image quality, bright colors, and good exposure control on the whites. The background does look a bit over blurred in the sense that the grasses look fairly close to the subject and one would expect them to be a little less blurred.
I did nothing to the background grasses to blue them....what you see is simply the OOF bokeh from the 500 with no TC at F 5.6 due to the subject to background distance. Perhaps it appears closer than reality do to the distance compression afforded by the telephoto?
Love the sence of environment here. Also the pose of the tern is excellent and nice soft light really helps making the bird pop! Do agree about the saturation. I also wish for a bit more detail in the blacks and suggest to get rid of the darker spots in the BG on the lower right. A very very good shot..
Common Tern Returning To Nest
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