1D Mk iii
1/1250 @ f/10.0
100-400 zoom @ 380mm
Manual +0.45
ISO 800
Evaluative metering
March 27, 0904 EDT
Is the bird too dark? Is the composition "pleasing"?
1D Mk iii
1/1250 @ f/10.0
100-400 zoom @ 380mm
Manual +0.45
ISO 800
Evaluative metering
March 27, 0904 EDT
Is the bird too dark? Is the composition "pleasing"?
Like the banking pose and eye contact David. The exposure looks fine and the composition is nice. It's the sharpness that isn't quite there. I would apply some additional sharpening. I would also lighten the iris a little.
Upcoming Workshops: Bosque del Apache 2019, Ecuador 2020 (details coming soon)
Website - Facebook - 500px
This version is further sharpened.
Yikes. You way overdid the sharpening in the repost. The OP was a bit too contrasty for my taste, the darsk too dark, and I find myseld wishing for a more dorsal view. Good job on lightening the BKGR in the repost.
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.
David:
I wonder how big of a crop this is from the original? Yes, there are some sharpening issues, but it just doesn't seem to have the detail I would expect.
Randy
Thanks everyone. Of course I recognized the horrible oversharpening, but I wanted to share what came out of USM 60/3/1 on the L channel of LAB color. The RGB's halo was as big as the bird (well, not really). The crop is 1/3 of the frame (i.e., 2/3 gone). The absence of those 7+MPX is likely the main problem. I'm going to try again starting from RAW.
The huge crop is hurting you here. It also is over saturated, as you already know. Go back to your RAW file, as stated, and try once more. It still seems a bit soft however. You might want to try for another shot. Thanks for posting.

Nice shot, I think this crop has been up-sized and thus there are interpolated pixels which don't contain real information, I think posting at native size is better. If it is not an upsize then something is wrong with sharpening.
I really appreciate the excellent commentary. Thanks to all of those who took time to help me. I went back to the .CR2 and started from scratch. To maintain the "feel" of the image I had to again do the big crop. The darkness problem was easy compared to the sharpness problem. I've come to realize that the softness - especially of the wing tips (L > R) - is going to generate too much noise if I sharpen enough give it a "cxrisp" look.
Next trip I'll pay more attention to the basics regarding a sharp image.
An 800X640 px version of the "new" PP effort is my next reply.
Thanks again!
See my prior reply.
The pane above is a huge improvement over the others many of which were distasters. For years my position has been that many folks who start with good images ruin them in Photoshop. That's why we came up with our Digital Basics File....
BIRDS AS ART Blog: great info and lessons, lots of images with our legendary BAA educational Captions; we will not sell you junk. 30+ years of long lens experience/e-mail with gear questions.
BIRDS AS ART Online Store: we will not sell you junk. 35 years of long lens experience. Please e-mail with gear questions.
Check out the new SONY e-Guide and videos that I did with Patrick Sparkman here. Ten percent discount for BPN members,
E-mail me at samandmayasgrandpa@att.net.