Double-crested Cormorant

[Dan Brown]

Capture made this morning at a local park pond, laying on my belly! Almost full frame, PP'ed in ACR and PS CS3, NR with Noise Ninja, selective sharpening with NIK. Cloned out a bunch of little white stuff on the water's surface. C&C welcome.

Camera Model: NIKON D300, handheld
Camera serial number: 3125128
Firmware: Version 2.10
Date/Time: 2009:12:29 10:37:25
Shutter speed: 1/180 sec
Aperture: 5.6
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Multi-segment
ISO: 400
Lens: VR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D
Focal length: 400mm
Focal length: 600mm (in 35mm film)
VR Image Stabilization: On
AF mode: AF-S

[Loukie Viljoen]

To me it looks softish all round, Nikon does better, did the noiseninja rob you?

[Harshad Barve]

Looks soft to me too
Lovely wing pose and nice HA , you gotta love that emerald eye here
TFS

[Joe Senzatimore]

Does seem a bit soft. Perhaps due to the flat light or some soft fog or mist. Has a great mono-chromatic feel. I find the lack of tack sharpness helps create the great mood this has. Can't miss that great eye!!!!

[Peter Farrell]

I like it as it is. These are not glamorous birds and the slihgt softness of the image, I feel, is a plus. The overall image has a great mood. Great HA for a rear view and super detail.
Peter

[Joe Brown]

Great shot, the central composition really works. Looks sharp enough for me.
Joe

[Doug Brown]

Other than a little softness, I like this image a lot. Great low angle, terrific pose, and a dark mood

[Dan Brown]

Thanks all for the comments. Here is another try with a little more sharpening, don't know if it will make much difference. I always seem to get the sharpening wrong for the postings. The first post looked fine on PS to me, but maybe it lost a bit on upload.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Terrific pose on this guy, perfect HA for this back view. Love the eye!! I detect a bit of colour noise - was the exposure needing to be raised during post-processing? Looks like there was a bit of fog, and maybe you wanted to keep that mood intact, but a bit more contrast would do good too.

[Dan Brown]

Terrific pose on this guy, perfect HA for this back view. Love the eye!! I detect a bit of colour noise - was the exposure needing to be raised during post-processing? Looks like there was a bit of fog, and maybe you wanted to keep that mood intact, but a bit more contrast would do good too.

Yes Daniel, there was fog. My ACR sliders were adjusted as follows, exposure= 1.05, recovery= 46 and blacks= 67. The biggie was the blacks, which cut the heavy fog. Maybe this caused the color noise. I have noticed the noise at 800 iso with my D300? Maybe underexposures?

[Daniel Cadieux]

Yes Daniel, there was fog. My ACR sliders were adjusted as follows, exposure= 1.05, recovery= 46 and blacks= 67. The biggie was the blacks, which cut the heavy fog. Maybe this caused the color noise. I have noticed the noise at 800 iso with my D300? Maybe underexposures?

Yes, from the looks of it the colour noise was caused by recovering underexposed blacks. When applying NR there is an option to reduce colour noise (I also use Noise Ninja).