Nikon D3 using 200-400 f4
at 330 mm, shutter speed 1/1600 sec, ISO 200, f 4
Gitzo 1348 tripod with a Wimberley 2 mount
Taken on a sunny day so difficult to keep the whites from blowing out.
Owl did eventually do some flying but discovered that trying to get a good shot of bird in flight is certainly not easy on a Wimberley mount
Will need to do much more practicing to get the technique down.
Any comments on this image would be appreciated
Hi Bob,
Such a beautiful bird...
As you say, it is so difficult on a sunny day and the whites do look harsh to me. I think that the bird could also do with a little contrast and saruration boost and I'd tone down / darken the BG a little (probably in PS levels). The bird's pose is lovely. I agree that they are very difficult in flight!!
Regards,
Nicki
Agree with suggestions and would also work on the eye. Easy to select and lighten a bit
You did really well with the light and love how you got it set up with the complementing bg !!! btw once you get the hang of it doing flight from the Wimberley is easy. With the long lenses I feel I can do better from the tripod and only hand hold when there is no choice. Photographing from boats is one of them.
Thanks for all your help and great suggestions. I have recently upgraded to Lightroom 2 and find the adjustment brush feature a fantastic new addition. It allowed me to selectively adjust the exposure just on the bird to bring it down and lessen the harshness of the hightlights. I also was able to do the same thing with saturation to bring that up and make the image "pop" abit. I then used it on the right eye and increased the exposure there 4 stops and was amazed at some of the detail it was able to bring out of the shadows. I was able to see the reflection in the right eye of the blue sky and the trees behind me. Even though it doesn't form a typical catch light it did bring enough detail into the eye to improve the image in my opinion.
I strongly recommend Lightroom 2 which really is a great program for post processing RAW images or any images for that matter. It definitely made it much easier to make the suggested adjustments on my image.
I have reposted the adjusted image and look forward to your comments. I am finding this forum an extremely valuable resource. Thanks for all your help.
Barn Owl
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