Puffin With Fish Cropped

[Arthur Morris]

This image was created on the 2018 UK Puffins and Gannets IPT on the afternoon of July 8, 2018. I used the InduroGIT 304L/Mongoose M3.6-mounted Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens, the Nikon AF-S Teleconverter TC-17E II, and my souped up (9 fps) mega mega-pixel Nikon D850 DSLR.. ISO 800. Matrix metering +2/3 stop: 1/400 sec. at f/11 in Manual mode. AUTO1 WB at 3:41pm on cloudy-bright afternoon. Three to the left and three up from the center AF point/d-9/Shutter Button/Continuous (AI Servo in Canon) AF was active at the moment of exposure. Phase detection AF Fine-tune value: +1. See the Nikon AF Fine-tune e-Guide here.

To learn more about the creation of this image and the occasional problems with long Nikon lenses and teleconverters, see the Nikon Long Lens/TC-E (teleconverter) AF Problem Illustrated blog post here.

As for the image, don't be shy; all comments, suggestions, and questions are appreciated.

with love, artie

ps: if you'd like to join me on the UK Puffins, Gannets, and Red Kite IPT write for BPN member discount info.

[Joseph Przybyla]

I don't see how this could be better. About as perfect straight head on as it gets. A mouth full of fish with most eyes lined up and visible. Spot on post processing. Thank you for sharing, Artie.

[Isaac Grant]

I like the pose and that mouth full of fish is to die for. Excellent background! I really need to get myself in front of a puffin one day with a camera. They are such beautiful birds. It looks like you worked on the whites a bit and there is a spot just below the bill and in between the fish where maybe an adjustment was made but there was not enough of a feather? Seems a sharp line between the blacks and whites. If mine, and I wish it was, I would pump up the exposure a little and warm it up a bit as well. Again I feel that may be a difference in the monitors we are viewing this on.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent portrait with the fish, love we can see both eyes. There is some kind of artifact around the neck most likely from selection. WB looks a touch bluish on my screen but could be natural given the light


Hope you're liking the 500PF

[Arthur Morris]

excellent portrait with the fish, love we can see both eyes. There is some kind of artifact around the neck most likely from selection. WB looks a touch bluish on my screen but could be natural given the light


Hope you're liking the 500PF

Good eyes. I spotted that myself only on the cropped TIF F :(

The 500 PF has been delayed by nightmare. I will share the story on the blog soon :) I am trying to arrange to meet a guy in FL this morning and rent his ... I am not confident that UPS will get it here tomorrow as promised.

with love, artie

[Arthur Morris]

Great eyes by Arash. I noticed the artifact around the bottom of the neck. After I made the selection with the Quick Selection Tool so that I could apply my NIK color Efex Pro 40/40 recipe, I forgot to feather the selection ... I did feather it one pixel for the repost and the problem was eliminated. In addition, I reduced the BLUE saturation 50 points to clean up the WHITEs. BPN is the place to come for honest critiques done gently by folks with great eyes!

with love, artie

[Bill Dix]

Nice looking portrait, with fish eyes visible. Good background. Repost helps. I also noticed that three of the fish tails seem to be disappearing into the breast feathers. Is that what is happening, or were they not selected when you did some work on the whites?

[annmpacheco]

I like the repost, and loss of bluish cast on the fish and throughout the head... Nice almost head on and such a beak full of fish!

[Jonathan Ashton]

Artie the repost is better but in my view this is not one of your best by a long long way. I don't think the shutter speed was fast enough, the fish are not sharp, I would love to see a processed version without all the filters, i.e. just processed with ideal colour balance and optimal raw sharpening using ACR or Lightroom.