Sandhill Crane

[Luis Villablanca]

Here is another shot of a Sandhill crane just after take-off.



Location: Bosque del Apache, NM
Equipment: Canon 7D + 500L (handheld)
Specs: f/4.5, 1/4000s, ISO 400, evaluative metering, -1/3EV


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Luis

[Kiran Poonacha]

would suggest a bit of selective sharpening of the head, loved the light, details and pose here Bhai, the 7D sure works well for BIF.. I have been hearing about noise issues on the 7D whats your take..

[Luis Villablanca]

would suggest a bit of selective sharpening of the head, loved the light, details and pose here Bhai, the 7D sure works well for BIF.. I have been hearing about noise issues on the 7D whats your take..

Thanks Kiran. I'll work on the sharpening.
Regarding the noise on the 7D, I think it will depend on the exposure and the processing (I shoot RAW).
If you underexpose then the noise seems to be higher than if you increase the ISO. Anyway, I am used
to using NR on my flow, so the extra noise is not a big problem for me.
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Luis

[Adams Serra]

Great picture Luis!
Beautiful bird and Back ground.

[Mital Patel]

Luis i am just falling in love with this .. so many posting for this beautiful bird this days and taking me in deep. superb freeze here. like the bg with strokes and fantastic clean weather makes this more attractive.

[Nagesh Mula]

Congrats Luis, this is one fantastic image.

[david cramer]

Very nice mid-take off catch. A slight contrast boost would give the image more pop.

[denise ippolito]

Beautiful flight pose and details. I might tone down the legs a bit. BG colors are gorgeous.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Luis, First of all, welcome and thanks for your membership support. It is greatly appreciated. Loverly bird, wing position, BKGR, and it looks pretty sharp to me. Though the bird is angling slighty towards you a bit (which is good), the head is square to the camera so it gives the impression of being turned slightly away from you. With my brief experience with the 7D, I am surprised by the -1/3 stop EC as my 7D exposed like a MIII rather than a 50D....

A crop from the bottom to lose the reflection of the wing would improve this in several ways... Any guesses as to why?

[Harshad Barve]

Big welcome Luis
one lovely image with nice wing pose and shining legs , BG looks good and agreed with Guruji here about crop
TFS

A crop from the bottom to lose the reflection of the wing would improve this in several ways... Any guesses as to why?

Guruji
My guess is small reflection patch is hurting beautiful blue water

[Luis Villablanca]

Hi Luis, First of all, welcome and thanks for your membership support. It is greatly appreciated. Loverly bird, wing position, BKGR, and it looks pretty sharp to me. Though the bird is angling slighty towards you a bit (which is good), the head is square to the camera so it gives the impression of being turned slightly away from you. With my brief experience with the 7D, I am surprised by the -1/3 stop EC as my 7D exposed like a MIII rather than a 50D....

A crop from the bottom to lose the reflection of the wing would improve this in several ways... Any guesses as to why?

Thanks Art. I am not sure about the -1/3 EV EC. I guess I was afraid of blowing out the white patch on the face of the crane.
Regarding the bottom crop, I agree with you. I think it would make the background more even with just two colors.
Here is the a new crop (I also cloned out the leftover shadow):


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Luis

[Mark Theriot]

I'm a total rookie at this, but here's my guess!
When I look at the reflection, I feel it draws my eye there, away from the bird, as it's own element. When I look at a full reflection, of a duck in the water for example, my eye seems to recognize it as part of the main image and therefore complimentary to the shot.

Mark

A crop from the bottom to lose the reflection of the wing would improve this in several ways... Any guesses as to why?

[Arthur Morris]

For me, the repost is much stronger. Two reasons:

1- When the reflection is included, it drags the viewers eye from the subject a bit.
2- With the reflection included, the proportion of blue water to o-o-f grass is too close to 1:1, too close to 50/50. Without it, it is much closer to 2/3 o-of grass, 1/3 blue water.

ps: Good work by the rookie. Full reflection in perfectly still water can be killer-good. That is not the case here with a partial reflection and some wind disturbing the water's surface....

Just my thoughts. Last thing that I would do is lose the little trace of splash in the llc.