Beads of Rain

[Muhammad Arif]

Common Merganser with rain droplets on his back.

I didn't see any posts for this month's theme - so, I thought I would post one. I struggled a bit with getting the right exposure for this image. It was a very overcast morning and even at wide-open aperture, I was at 1/400 sec. With a 500mm hand-held, I didn't want to slow down the shutter anymore. The image was a little underexposed in the dark areas. The whites show an RGB value of about 97-96-96. I suppose I could've raised the ISO a bit more but on an EOS R, I didn't like to go above 2000 (this image was before DeNoise AI and I think, now I would go to ISO 3200)

Canon EOS R
Canon 500mm f/4L (old five)
1/400 | f/4.0 | ISO 2000

As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Muhammad, I quite like the POV, but as presented the image appears soft and just needs a bit more oomph in tonal range to add some depth to both subject and the environment. The water droplets are nice touch, I just think it might be worth a revisit to the raw and once crop to upload add the sharpening.

Not sure if the attached RP helps or not, as I've pushed it a little more just so you can see the possible direction I feel it could go???? There are some sharpening halos in the RP which I'm not bothered about as this can be rectified at your end.

TFS
Steve

[Muhammad Arif]

Hi, Steve. Wow, that makes quite a difference. I love the sharpened version you uploaded. I will work on my raw file some more. Thanks for your post - it was quite helpful.

[Dorian Anderson]

Yeah, Steve's repost is a big improvement. You had everything you needed in the original file, so it's just a matter of processing. Exposure looks good across the bird, so that's good news. My biggest issue is the lack of space to the left of the bird and the huge amount of open space above. The frame is very bottom- and left-heavy as a result. A lower shooting angle would also help generate more of an artistic foreground and background.

[Arthur Morris]

Too tight all around. Do you have room in the original??? While Steve's repost is nicely sharpened it is much too dark and some vignetting became apparent.

with love, artie

ps: got the raw file???

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Artie, I did say I pushed it more than required so Muhammad could see what was with the original capture.