I captured this image at Pitt Town, NSW, Australia right on dusk. One of the islands in the lagoon is a night time roost for Australian White and Straw-necked Ibis. These are the White ones, flying to their roost tree. I was in waist deep water standing near the island. I tried to keep the mood dark, as the evening was fast fading to night. The last bit of sun illuminated the birds in this group, just before it dipped over the Blue Mountains to my west.
I quick masked a fifth bird from behind the last one. Also, I feel the pano crop works well, as there was too much blank sky anyway. Only sharpened a smidgen.
30D, 300mm f/4L IS USM + 1.4x, ISO800, f/5.6, 1/2000th, hand heldm full width of frame. Zero exposure compensation applied. Final note, I did apply quite a bit of Noise Reduction. Still seems noisy.
Hi Akos, you have a strong graphic image and good separation of the birds. I think it looks a little dark and the colour of the birds looks like a linear burn. I think it would look more pleasing if you did a special effect to it IMHO.
Akos what did the histogram look like? Did you have any data on the last box to the right?
Mood wise I don't mind going dark when there is some color in the bg As presented I would leave as is since lightening would increase noise in a big way. At that time of day my exp compensation is usually +1 and more depending on bg clouds !!!
Hi Akos - agree with AL'S comments - just lacking some intrest in the BG -- first thing that came to my mind was a shilloutte - use you histogram to confirm your exposure.
Ibis flying at dusk
