I shot this on a gloomy day, in RAW + JPEG. This is the JPEG version, simply resized for posting. Needless to say, a bit of brightening, contrast, saturation and sharpening helped in the tweaked version, along with just a bit of cropping right and bottom. In my haste I missed the focal point (it's on the breast down at the waterline); and I'm sure some fill-in flash would have helped if my kit had included same.
D90 with 80-400 AF VR; ISO 800. f/5.6 at 1/1000 s, handheld. No EC.
Hi Bill - SOC - exposure looks good - as you already noted point of focus was off, you have a good head angle and sharp details-- PP wise you are on the right track.
i was thinking some flash might have given you the extra pop you needed on the gloomy day. you mentioned that! agree with lance on the rest. would love to see the finished image!
Here's what I came up with after modest tweaking. I would appreciate thoughts on anything I might have missed. I agree with Lance about the composition -- it could have benefitted from a bit more space left and above, and less below.
Hi Bill Would suggest placing the bird further back in the frame at the time of exposure, as presented you would need to add canvas up front !! Best not to center birds !! btw under those conditions you might want to add light ... image is a bit under !!!
Thank you Gus and Alfred. I have to keep reminding myself not to center the birds, until it becomes instinctive. I made the same mistake, but worse, with the companion shot of an adult loon who resurfaced unexpectedly close to me. As you can see from the repost I haven't yet mastered the cloning and healing tools; but as an exercise in composition do you think this helps? Otherwise Gus' suggestion of pano would work until I get it right in the camera.
Assignment SOC - Common Loon juvi
