Early Morning Stilt

[Lance Peters]

Shot in the warm glow of a early morning sunrise

Nikon D3S
Sigmonster @ 800mm
F7.1
1/1250TH
-0.7EV
1600 ISO
Matrix Metering
Tripod

Hard in this light even to keep the whites in check and details in the blacks.
cropped and sharpened - comments welcome.

[arash_hazeghi]

What a cutie, love the water drop sharp and clean. well done.

[Julie Brown]

It is cute. :) I think this is a well-composed image, Lance. I like the pose, and the ripples in the water evoke a calm and peacefulness.

You mentioned the light being a challenge: what time of day is optimal for shooting birds? From reading in the forums, it seems as if low angled light (or sidelight) can be undesirable. For landscapes, obviously morning and evening are most pleasing. How do bird photographers approach this in capture and PP?

[Richard Waas]

I love this comp. The exposure is dead on and I think the morning light takes this over the top. I see a brownish half moon something on the waterline about a third from the left that catches my eye. Other than that, "Wow". Super congrats Lance!!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Julie There is a difference between low angle and side light !! A low angle light can come from the side or not.

For birds we like soft light for the most part which will be coming from a low angle. Most images you see will have frontal light which evenly illuminates the bird. Side light can be used to advantage and produces some very sharp images due to the local contrast.

As the sun gets higher we tend to stop photographing unless it is overcast, for white birds at least. Difficult making good images in harsh light !! Fill flash can help with harsh light filling in shadows !!

Hi Lance Love how you can crank up the ISO on that D3s and come up white feather detail !!!

[Julie Brown]

Thanks for that info Alfred. That is helpful. :)

[Harshad Barve]

Excellent image Lance , loving that water drop on beak ,
Thanks for such a awesome info Alfred
TFS

[Lance Peters]

I love this comp. The exposure is dead on and I think the morning light takes this over the top. I see a brownish half moon something on the waterline about a third from the left that catches my eye. Other than that, "Wow". Super congrats Lance!!

Hi Richard - Was hoping someone would pick that up - in this instance I would clone it out - usually dont.
:)

[Lance Peters]

Hey AL - D3S does seem to be good :)- wanted to keep the orangy red glow on the whites.

[Bill Dix]

Beautiful light, and what spectacular legs. I can see the difficulty in optimizing both the whites and blacks, but I don't think you could have exposed it better than this. A lovely shot.

[Mark Young]

Love the low angle, it really shows just how lanky these birds really are.