African Darter

[Chris van Rooyen]

I captured this image of an African Darter a few weeks back in heavily overcast weather. I used my customary +1 overexposure for grey skies, did a lot of noise reduction on the background and really pushed the saturation. Comments will be appreciated as always :)

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark III
Date/Time: 2009:03:04 08:48:22
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 4.5
Exposure mode: Tv
Exposure compensation: +1
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous
ISO: 1600
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Focal length: 500mm

[Axel Hildebrandt]

The exposure control is great and so ist the eye contact and BG. I might increase contrast a few points.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Good point, thanks Axel

[Lana Hays]

Chris
I agree with Axel about the contrast. Love all the work that you did with this one. What's most impressive is the 3-D quality that it has.....almost mesmerizing. Well done.

[Tony Whitehead]

Unique Darter image, Chris. Nice that the DOF has covered the main areas well despite the relatively wide aperture. BG result is excellent.

[Mike Boyce]

Really nice Chris. Great job eliminating noise in the BG. I really appreciate the exposure detail you have provided as well as camera and lens.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Stunnnig pose, stunnig light and detail, great colors and wonderfull vertical comp. Congratualitons!

[Phil Ertel]

Very nice as usual! The background is very complimentary. The pose is killer with good depth of field. I also like the composition. Very nice!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Depth of field is fantastic and the BG complimentary for sure. Your recovery of the image is superb. Great work! :)

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comemnts guys. Yes Peter I do use exposure safety shift as well as the ISO speed enabled (Cfn 1-8 -2). For me the most important thing is to maintain shutter speed. I can always deal with the noise afterwards, but if the image is soft because of inadequate shutter speed, its a lost case to start with.

[Sid Garige]

Never seen them so beautiful.

[Mark Schmitt]

The composition is the most compelling aspect of this image: the unique angle of the bird and the complimentary BG. If I had one suggestion it would be to mask the tail, promote this to a layer and then apply selective dodge burn and curves to delineat it just a little. Masterful technical work, Chris