Wood Stork Landing

[Linwood Ferguson]

Visited Harns Marsh at Ft. Myers, FL this morning at dawn. Was shooting swallows in flight (mostly shooting the empty space they left behind!) when this guy landed about 30 yards away.

D300, 200-400 f4 @ 380, F4, 1/1250 sec, ISO 400, handheld

It was fairly overcast and I had to lighten this a full stop and add a bit of fill light in lightroom. I then used CS3 to clone out some reeds that were annoying behind the wings and adjust the midtone contrast a bit. I did not increase the saturation - the light and colors there at dawn are great, with the sun rusing directly behind you.

I have more room on both sides, but did not see anything interesting there, so opted for the square, fairly centered crop. Was vaguely unhappy with it but liked anything off center more.

A face only a mother could love!

Suggestions welcomed.

[William Malacarne]

I think it would benefit from a little more room on each side and maybe even a little on top, Also maybe lighten the eye some. Bird is in very nice position.

Bill

[Alfred Forns]

Agree with the extra room all around !! Might also clone out the tow white stakes !!

Fine landing pose and sharp, nice detail under the wings. Not sure what exposure mode/comp was but is helpful in helping out !! Nikon does well early morning adding light when its warm, requires less positive comp than Canon.

Can also do some bg work by smoothing out and eliminating the white bg strip. Normally don't like doing so much PS work but seems worth it for this image !!!

[Kerry Perkins]

Nice wing position and details, as well as lovely colors. I agree with more space, a bird this big needs some room to move! I would also remove those reeds on the left and do some noise reduction on the background.

Do like the landing pose and capture angle. Well done!

[Lance Peters]

All good advice above and nothing much else I can add really - keep practising and keep em coming :)

[Linwood Ferguson]

I think it would benefit from a little more room on each side and maybe even a little on top, Also maybe lighten the eye some. Bird is in very nice position.

Bill

Here is a different crop. I have not worked on cloning out the reeds as I just wanted a reaction as to whether you think the additional space around the bird does help (and I won't have time for all the cloning until I return from a two week trip).

I had to change the relative size also to fit in the image size limits, so it will look a bit different in that regard also, sorry.

I see in a lot of judging (especially at our local club) there is a continual push to crop more tightly. Do you feel there are general guidelines as to when tight vs. space works better? E.g. is it motion, that one benefits more from cropping more tightly around a stationary subject?

Again... sorry for not incorporating all the ideas (reed removal), just no time now and a lot of reeds, plus that other twig near his right foot I took out before.

[Linwood Ferguson]

Not sure what exposure mode/comp was but is helpful in helping out !! Nikon does well early morning adding light when its warm, requires less positive comp than Canon.

I was in shutter priority (I was shooting swallows in flight), auto-ISO (but in this case it did not kick in, the base I had was 400 at the time), and center weighted average with a +1EV comp (largely because I was shooting the swallows against a bright water background). The focus point (and so meter weighted average) landed mostly on the white features, which is why I think I needed to pull up the exposure almost a stop. The histogram way left. Explains a bit of the noise in the background, which yes, I can work out with Noise Ninja.

Interestingly when I went back to check, I found I had a flash on at the time. I do not think it had any significant impact, I had tried a few with the SB800 and better beamer with the swallows, but they were about one third the distance. I was set on M x 1/4 - 2/3EV so it was not much light and I do not think contributed.

I was also shooting in 12bit at the time, which might have had a tiny impact on detail in the darker features.

And obviously none of this was planned at the time, as opportunity landed. The whole day this was the only bird that actually landed near me that wasn't hidden by brush, too far, when I wasn't looking, etc.

Can also do some bg work by smoothing out and eliminating the white bg strip. Normally don't like doing so much PS work but seems worth it for this image !!!

The ripples on the water? Will look at doing that when I do the reeds. Or maybe just one it down a bit -- to me that adds some context to the water, but it is distracting going right across the base of the wings.

Thanks!

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Tough exposure, I think you did well. Might try toning down the whites on the neck. The wing span is great.

[Alfred Forns]

The question of space around the bird is interesting. There is no rule as for having the bird tight or lots of room. I like to do it by taste but try ending up with about 80% bird in frame. for some reason filling the frame close to the edges just makes it look tight !!

For competition if you know what they want ahead of time ..... would do it their way.