GBH in flight

[Bill Dix]

D90; 80-400 VR @ 120mm; ISO 1600. f/5 @ 1/800s. Matrix metering, 0EV. HH.

I came across this in my files from last May. I passed over it at the time, for a number of reasons including large crop (this is about 40% of full width), high ISO with lots of noise on the bird, busy BG. I've tried to salvage it, and wonder if anyone thinks this works. C&C appreciated.

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Bill, the picture is framed well but I can see the image quality is not good on my monitor. Not sure how to fix give the large crop and high ISO. With these two factors working against you could be an up hill battle. Probably need to return to square one and reprocess and maybe redesign the image. I will defer to others with more post production experience than I.

Thanks for sharing and your work continues to improve.

[Lance Peters]

Hi Bill - looks overworked with some definite funky area's under the wing and along the body.
Would go back to the raw and start again maybe.
Maybe post the original so we can see.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Bill,
I totally agree on starting from scratch, the image suffers from poor quality due to noise, lack of contrast and over sharpening...re work the raw file and give it another round...:cool:

[Bill Dix]

Thank you Jeff, Lance and Gus. I've posted the original here - SOC except that in RAW Capture I reduced the exposure -1.5 stops to get the histogram looking right. As I look at it again, it's obvious that the underwing and body are basically unsalvagable, even if I could deal with the noise and other issues. I'll take another shot at processing the RAW file when I get some time, but I don't think it's worth much effort. Better to go back to the lake and try again - he's often hanging around that same spot and I've improved my BIF technique since last May. Thanks for looking.

[Lance Peters]

Thank you Jeff, Lance and Gus. I've posted the original here - SOC except that in RAW Capture I reduced the exposure -1.5 stops to get the histogram looking right. As I look at it again, it's obvious that the underwing and body are basically unsalvagable, even if I could deal with the noise and other issues. I'll take another shot at processing the RAW file when I get some time, but I don't think it's worth much effort. Better to go back to the lake and try again - he's often hanging around that same spot and I've improved my BIF technique since last May. Thanks for looking.

Id Agree Bill - just such a big crop when you hav ethe other factors working against you as well.
Keep em coming :)

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill The original with a minimal crop from the bottom and left would work very nice !!! No need to go in and crop all that much !!! Its always nice seeing the big picture !!!