Gt. Black-backed Gull. D300, Tamron 200-500 at 500mm., ISO 800, 1/6400, F6.3. Hand-held from a moving fishing boat. Back-lit, spot-metered. Off Halifax Harbor, June 2008.
Hi Richard- You did extremely well to achieve the sharpness here. I like the composition and the action. There is some noise in the left wing of the bird and the eye is a bit dark. Both could be fixed if you were that way inclined.
I like the moment captured, angle, BG and eye contact. It looks quite good considering that it was backlit. Fill-flash might have helped in this situation. Thanks for sharing!
I try and focus on the eye if I can, and most of the time the spot-meter and the center focus are the same, so I imagine I spot-metered from the bird's head, if I recall.
Wow, one image and so much to say. First off, you need to do some studying with regards to metering, esp. spot metering which usually requires a specific exp. compensation depending on WHAT you spot meter... You did fairly well here in a difficult situation. As Axel suggested, flash (and lots of it) would have helped. The image is actually side lit (from the right) not back lit. Good job on the sharpness, head angle, and COMP.
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