Cormorant Landing

[WIlliam Maroldo]

SonyA700~Sony70-400G@400mm~ISO1000~F5.6~1/1250 sec~manual exposure~Hand Held~3-7-2010~Brazos Bend State Park, Texas~CS4
Adult male cormorants, around breeding season, become black. An exposure problem that was more problematic due to the white splash in the water.
Although I usually expose to the right, accidentally didn't do that here, and no exposure adj. was made in post-processing(couldn't lighten it up because noise would become an issue). Is the bird is too dark?
comments and critique welcomed. regards~Bill

[wendell westfall]

Bill, I'm envious; I like it! You have here an image I've been trying to get for a long time. Yes, I do think it is a bit dark (I don't know how to improve it), and I'd like to see the action just a bit earlier, so it would show those feet skidding in for the landing. Also, would be nice if the beak were separated in space from the wing. Sadly, I keep trying to do what you have done, but keep failing. Good work!

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Bill Good point about the water and exposure !!!

You need direct strong light for those birds and will blow the water drops or if you can get them just before they land.

Do like the landing pose but don't think you can revive it with the under exposure, the shadows turn to mush when you open much !!!

[Gail Spitler]

Bill - Great action capture - splash is terrific, and I like the extension on the wings. Funny texture on the water in front of the bird.
Even though the bird is dark, you have got a couple of key ingredients - the turquoise eye and the scale-like feather pattern.
Well done in a difficult situation.
Cheer
Gail

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Appreciate the comments. Gail-you have a good eye; I did try to burn in some detail in the splash in front of the bird, and now that you mention it it doesn't look right!
I might also explain that it was overcast, and shadows were not a problem. The problem was that I didn't expose to the right, which is how I generally avoid noise problems with dark parts of an image- decreasing exposure post-processing. In this case if I had exposed to the right, after post processing I would have ended up with a lighter image and much less noise, but in reality it is a black bird and the exposure was "correct". At higher ISOs with digital "correct" doesn't necessarily cut it, and noise always shows up in low luminosity parts of the image.
The dilemma is that it is impossible to lighten such an image post-processing, since this makes noise much worse.
I shoot manually, my subject at the time was a tricolored heron, and I was caught off guard by the cormorant landing close by. regards~Bill