Forster's Tern in Territorial Fight

[Ashutosh Sinha]

Forster's Tern Territorial Fight
Spec : Canon 40D, 400mm f/5.6L, ISO 800, F5.6, 1/2000s, Set Manually;
Place : Mountain View, California, USA.

Your comments on exposure, composition, noise (40D noise performane at ISO 800 is nothing to write about) etc. is appreciated.


I have been birdwatcher since my childhood and only this year in January I started carrying Camera on birding trips. My only experience in photography is staring at Artie's bird photos for almost 10 years now and reading his book. In year 1999 while browsing Internet I came across virtualbirder.com that had a collection of bird photos by Artie. His Hooded Warbler photo was my first desktop wallpaper :D. Website haven't updated the gallery since then. Currently I have almost zero post-processing skill. I bought the Digital Basic CD in March but haven't got time to read it. I haven't even installed the Photoshop Elements that I bought back in March but probably do it this weekend and start learning to use it :o.

[Manos Papadomanolakis]

Welcome to BPN!
beautiful poses,light and action!!!

[David Roach]

Agree with Manos; wondrous light and action. Could go a tad lighter for my taste. Congrats!!!

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Welcome to BPN, Ashutosh. I like the interaction and light in this one and might sharpen the birds a bit more. Ideally, we could see the face of the bird at the top a bit more. Keep them coming!

[Randy Stout]

Ashutosh:

Excellent first post, with great action captured. Axel hit some of the tech points. The whites on the breasts are a bit overexposed, so I did a little rework with highlight protection, brought up the shadows a bit with shadows correction, slight bit of sharpening, and a very small crop, because all the action is happening between the two birds, you don't need a lot surrounding them.

The file is showing some noise in the darker areas, and it might be worth reworking the original file a bit, I think you can get even more out of it as your post processing skills evolve.

Cheers

Randy

[Kiran Poonacha]

Good one AS, loved the pose of the birds and details... the repost looks great.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Ashutosh,
Welcome to BPN!

A nice image. I love the action and the light. If you are clicking in RAW then you need not worry about. You can always reprocess your images as and when your post processing skills improve. Our best images, don't need much of post processing beyond contrast, levels, sharpening etc.

I agree with the comments that eye contact with the bird on top of the frame would have strengthened the image. The repost by Randy looks better. Look forward to more from you.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Jim Neiger]

I like the action you captured. The original looks a bit soft and dark. The repost looks a bit washed out to me. I brightened up the birds and sharpened them. A larger image would have been better, IMO. Is this a big crop? It seems to lack some detail, but it's difficult to tell with the small size image.

[Hugh J McLaughlin]

Lots of good ideas and help from the previous posters. Nice action captured.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

I agree that the contrast on my repost is a bit low. Partly from the S/H work, but also because the whites were blown on chest/abdomen of both birds, and any increase in contrast made it worse. It also brought out the noise in the shadows more.

An easy fix with the raw file.

Cheers

Randy

[Nagesh Mula]

Its a very good shot with good interaction and the fact that you could see the eye of one of the birds, Congratulations.
I tried it many times and I am not sucessful yet. I can understand how difficult this shot is.
I liked Jim's version here with highlights in control and image being sharper.
Did you take this pic in Shoreline lake ?

[Ramon M. Casares]

Yes, tighter would be better IMO, grreat interaction and poses, nice light and colors. Welcome and congratulations!

[Arthur Morris]

Ashutosh, Welcome to BPN and thanks for your membership support. I am glad that I served as something of an inspiration for you. Your image is a fine one and both reposts improved it. There are two main issues: lack of sharpening, which the reposts have addressed fully. And problems with the whites. Stop what you are doing, go to the ER (our Educational Resources Forum), and check out the various threads on dealing with the whites.

As far as Digital Bascis goes, yes, you do need to read it. We are working a a new version that can be attached to your head with electrodes; the information is uploaded to your brain while you sleep. See the Bulletins for availability.

[BillTyler]

Very nice timing! These birds move fast, the fights don't last long, and you got them at the peak of the action.

Bill

[Ashutosh Sinha]

Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions and kind words.

Randy :
Special thanks for taking time to work on the image, your repost looks much better. I envy your post processing skill :-). You are usually the first one to post re-processed image and show how image could be improved. I will be learning a lot from you.
Original RAW file does not have any over-exposed pixel. Something must have happened during conversion. It seems very common problem here.

Jim :
It is an honour that you will take time to comment and process my image. I am a big fan of yours. Three months back I bought the Richard Ettlinger's book "On Feathered Wings : Birds in Flight" that have a collection of your bird in flight photos. I regularly flip through it's page to get some inspiration.
Posted image is a vertical crop from horizontal image so yes it is a crop. Birds were at some distance that's why they lack some detail. The photo I posted is 800pixel in vertical dimension, the maximum allowed limit.

Artie :
You and British natural history film-maker Sir David Attenborough have been big inspiration in my life. Any chance you will get knighted and called "Sir Arthur Morris" :-). Hope to meet you in person some day and learn from you.

Saby :
Yes I shoot RAW and can reprocess the image latter as my skill level develops. I agree with you that most images should not need any processing but when you are pushing the limits of the camera in terms of low light and ISO some processing is required.

Nagesh :
Yes it was taken at Shoreline lake, one of the best place to photograph these birds.

[Jim Neiger]

Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions and kind words.


Jim :
It is an honour that you will take time to comment and process my image. I am a big fan of yours. Three months back I bought the Richard Ettlinger's book "On Feathered Wings : Birds in Flight" that have a collection of your bird in flight photos. I regularly flip through it's page to get some inspiration.
Posted image is a vertical crop from horizontal image so yes it is a crop. Birds were at some distance that's why they lack some detail. The photo I posted is 800pixel in vertical dimension, the maximum allowed limit.

.

I think the limit is 1024 pixels on the longest side.

[Arthur Morris]

Hodwy Ashutosh,

re:

"Artie :
You and British natural history film-maker Sir David Attenborough have been big inspiration in my life. Any chance you will get knighted and called "Sir Arthur Morris" :-). Hope to meet you in person some day and learn from you."

Thank you sir for your kind words. And good plan!