Well fudge

[Nonda Surratt]

And a bunch of not prime time printable words. Finally got out of the house, the last half wildlife baby/injured fill in the blank rehab season has kicked in so I'm a bit trapped right now.
Anyway out to annoy the swallows, two took off and I knew there would be one of their minor squabbles, I was ready. Was so darn engrossed in watching and waiting I didn't adjust my @#$#@% exposure..Please don't ask me to walk and chew gum at the same time..please.

So here tis, only took 3 frames, I was so ready sorta:(, with all the uglies from underexposure
M111, 400f5.6@f5.6, ISO 400, 1/6400

[Alfred Forns]

..... but killer action Nonda !!!! I like the lens selection Easy to hand hold and lots of reach Got two great poses along with head angles .... would tighten the crop a little more and keep after them !!!!!

[Nonda Surratt]

Thanks Alfred, could use some of the bottom or elsewhere too?. Agree on the lens, easy to maneuver, fast AF and sharp. Have always loved that lens actually..now hubby loves it:D

[Lance Peters]

Hi Nonda - nice action - well done, agree with the tighter crop - cant wait to see more :)

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Hi Nonda,
Killer action - very well done - despite the @#$#@%....
Regards,
Nicki

[Gus Cobos]

Nonda,
Simply fantastic. One killer capture with a wicked dog fight...my hat off to you...well done...:D:cool:

[Desmond Chan]

Hi Nonda,
Killer action - very well done - despite the @#$#@%....
Regards,
Nicki

Totally agree, despite the @#$#@%&^*^#@^%$#$ :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Nonda Surratt]

Thanks guys!!! High point I'm starting to string a few of these together, in focus birdies..OR the photo gods are being exceptionally kind, subject to change;)

[Arthur Morris]

Action well captured, and yes a crop off the bottom. Not, however, a contest winner. Please tell me the two main reasons why... (Hint, both reasons start with the same two words...)

[Nonda Surratt]

Artie,

I can thing of several of reason why it isn't a contest winner, they just don't start with the same word? There are some wing issues around the faces, plus poor exposure + noise

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Nondra, You were on the right track with the first one. Here you go:

1:The head of the top bird is in the shadow of the wing.
2: The head of the bottom bird is partially hidden by the wing.

Lastly, if you look closely the head of each bird is actually turned slightly away from the camera.

Do you you if they are both juveniles? Have a nice weekend.

[Nonda Surratt]

Good, I did know the wings were and issue. Downside I'll probably never be good enough to pick wing positions with swallows, good wings will be luck.

Bottom bird is the juvie, top is adult.

[Arthur Morris]

Good wing positions are 99.99% luck. Once you are in a good situation and the bird is in the ideal zone, then you will want to make 2 or 3 images to increase your chances of a good wing position...

[Julie Kenward]

Nonda, exposure isn't all that hard to fix in Photoshop. I increased the saturation on the blue sky and then ran noise reduction as it was getting grainy. Then I did a levels adjustment and gave it a bit of a crop off the bottom and right side. You could also play with the exposure adjustment or a curves adjustment in PS to get the same or better effect.

[Nonda Surratt]

Like the crop Julie..Already did all the above, and curves and a bit of S/H, exposure adjustment in LR, etc. etc. it was quite bad exposure wise:-) And since I don't use any NR software I pushed it as far as possible, was already picking up quite a bit of noise in the wings. Will probably get some sort of NR software at some point.

Here is the original, quick crop

[Desmond Chan]

Hi Nonda,

I took the liberty to quickly play around with your image. I only enhanced whatever is already there.

[Nonda Surratt]

Desmond, like how you got the head back on the adult. I tried a quick mask just in that area to bring it up a bit extra..So what did you do? Do see some S/H halos, but your not working with the full image either:-)

[Desmond Chan]

Desmond, like how you got the head back on the adult. I tried a quick mask just in that area to bring it up a bit extra..So what did you do? Do see some S/H halos, but your not working with the full image either:-)

I started with the original, darker photo you posted and adjusted the exposure. I selected the birds after checking the channels to isolate them. However, my selection wasn't perfect so that could explain some of the halo. No special tricks here just adjusting levels, enhancing colors, etc. For shadow, I applied "shadow/highlight" in LAB mode only on the lightness (L) channel. I used layer mask to isolate areas that I wanted adjusted. Reduced the noise and then finally selective sharpening with smart sharpen in LAB on the lightness channel only plus high pass in RGB mode. No tricks.

Your photo actually has some blue sky there, you know ;)

[Nonda Surratt]

Darn.I use to use that , S/H in LAB mode L channel..now why have I stopped? Always liked how that worked. Wouldn't be the same to select the BG then inverse to isolate the birds? L channel is the only way I sharpen..And yea I know there is blue sky. Going to revisit this one. Thanks

[Harold Davis]

whole lotta cursing going on and for nothing!! cool capture nonda!! good luck getting the awesome one!!!

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Great action capture Nonda, you were definitely ready. Agree with Mr. H's comments.
Regards,

[Nonda Surratt]

Thanks Mr H and Oscar, I'm working on it, could take years;)