Reed Cormorant

[Stu Bowie]

Captured this guy on saturday morning. The light was perfect to show up all the detail.

Canon 50D
100-400 L IS USM @400mm
1/1600
F/7.1
ISO 640

Exp comp +0.33
Hand held

[Daniel Cadieux]

I agree the light showed the detail, but it's still on the harsh side of things. Good head angle, but the amount of head turn to achieve this is quite much! Were you able to move left a bit in order to get the wingspread parallel to the sensor plane?

[Judy Lynn Malloch]

Really nice eye contact but I agree with Daniel. If you were able to move a little to the left to have captured the wings front on it would strengthen this capture. Good exposure and nice detail in the blacks . You did well with the strong light. Many thanks for sharing.

[Stu Bowie]

Daniel, Judy, thanks for your positive input. Much appreciated. Firstly, I dont think by moving I could have bettered the wing position by that much, but will keep it in mind for next time. With regards to the light, I have just looked at my exif info, and the time of capture was 7.45am - not too late in the morning, and with us in Autumn. Thanks again guys.

[Fabs Forns]

Agree the whole wing spread would have been much better. Great detail in the feathers, you can tell he's wet :)

[Mark Dumbleton]

Love the detail in this Stuart. These guys are hard to expose for if the light is bad, but light here was good and you have done well. Like the composition.

[Kim Rollins]

Stuart -

Though this is not one of my favorite birds you are showing I do think you have made a very good capture here. :)


"The Light" - I am of the opinion that any apparent harshness here may be due to the sharpening to light pixels the same a dark pixels rather then how the light was. As you have said time it was taken should have allowed good light. I suspect that this image is a strong candidate for 'Two Part Final USM Sharpening' and just guessing here but light pixels sharpened to 30-40% of that of dark ones and maybe less.

That said my suggestion is to return your file to CS3 and play and have some fun. Process your image, resize to be ready for the final sharpening for output and size and run sharpening in two parts so you can reduce the light side sharpening. I do believe it will make a positive difference.
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If you do not use or understand 2 Part Sharpening let me know as I would be glad to pass along some pointers.

Again Stuart, IMO it is a well captured image. Keep clicking!

[Tony Whitehead]

I'm with Kim on this - I think the main issue is sharpening especially on the wings. Damp feathers and bright African light (even early) are easily oversharpened. Might also be tempted by a version pushing the BG a bit darker.

[Kim Rollins]

I'm with Kim on this - I think the main issue is sharpening especially on the wings. Damp feathers and bright African light (even early) are easily oversharpened. Might also be tempted by a version pushing the BG a bit darker.

Hi Tony -
I am not sure that this bird is even damp though it may be. :confused: This wing spreading is behavior that I see many birds doing in the cool of a morning to warm themselves in the sun rather then for drying themselves, to name a few that do it besides the cormorants, many vultures and hawks do it too.

Of course I don't really know what morning temp. in S. Africa during the fall of the year are. Would it be cool (temperature wise) there then?

[Stu Bowie]

Kim, this guy had come out the water after fishing, and they always dry themselves like this. The temp when this was taken was around 14 deg C. There was also a chilly breeze that morning, and we were surrounded by water.

[Kim Rollins]

Kim, this guy had come out the water after fishing, and they always dry themselves like this. The temp when this was taken was around 14 deg C. There was also a chilly breeze that morning, and we were surrounded by water.

There you go and now I know it was wet. :o
I have seen these dry themselves with that behavior and also just warm themselves here. 14 degrees C is near 57 degrees my temp. LOL so that is warm to me here, 58 degrees F here now and what a day! Spring is here I think. :confused:

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you all for the great input. I appreciate every comment.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Stuart,
Great capture, and some improvement suggestions have already been noted and I can only agree. I like the overall look of this. Good job mate. :)

[Stu Bowie]

Thank you so much Akos.