Great Skua Wingflap

[Bill Dix]

From a 2016 trip to Iceland, shot in dim evening light.

D7200, 500f4, ISO 3200, 1/1600s @ f/7.1

[Arthur Morris]

Love the raised wing but others, lots of problems. IQ looks quite funky, especially about the face. The far shoreline distracts. And the bird is angled away from you.

with love, artie

[gail bisson]

Hi Bill,
Great wing stretch but I agree with Artie on this. There is something off about the PP here.
I would dodge the dark line in the water on the left- pulls the eye away,
Gail

[John Mack]

Must have been waiting quite awhile to get this nice strech. I'm sure the skua felt great afterwards.

[Dorian Anderson]

Great to see this highly-pelagic bird on land! Those white wing flashes are characteristic from upwards of a mile when we see skuas on boat trip here in CA.

Pose is lovely, but there is something very off with the processing. The bird is very crunchy. I'm not familiar with the limits of that body though.

[Bill Dix]

Thank you all. You are all correct. At least part of the problem was that the D7200 was never very good at ISO 3200; my high ISO images improved somewhat when I bought the D500. To make it worse, this was a bit underexposed and required some lifting of the exposure. All of which explains, I suppose, why I didn't post this back in 2016 and perhaps shouldn't have now. Back then, when I processed this, I didn't have the benefit of the Topaz AI products. I suppose I could go back to the RAW file and start over, but I think the issues are baked in to the basic image and probably wouldn't be dramatically improved with some Topaz magic.

[Arthur Morris]

Hey Bill, Excellent analysis. Many think that the amazing software we are blessed with today can make a poor image great. Tain't so. But always better to post and learn than not. Good on you.

with love, a