Sony A700, 70-400G @400mm, f5.6, 1/800, iso 200, ec +2.0, HH panning, very overcast day.
50% crop, highlight/shadow adjustment, slight boost in contrast, USM
I was set up shooting an eagle in flight, when this guy showed up.
I know that the HAP will be after me...
When you see of them guys even if you know the ha is off its soooo difficult to keep of the shutter :)
Excellent compensation, not sure why the sky turned out with a cast.
With overcast you can compensate even more to the point the sky is all blown but the bird is fine, the limit is how much of the head is exposed to the top light at gets blown !!! .. hope you get the eagle next !!!
Hi Peter - lovely full spread wing capture, strong composition, and overall sharpness looks good to me. Obviously HA isn't what you would have wanted. I wonder if the 50% crop and overcast light resulted in the noise that seems to be present.
Cheers
Gail
Agree with Gail - great wing spread and comp. I'm not sure you needed the boost in contrast, and the noise on the bird is a bit troubling - maybe too much sharpening? I've had a lot of trouble getting the exposure and contrast right on these guys.
Thank you all for the comments, I think I could have done without the last round of sharpening.
Here is a re-post; less sharpening, less contrast boost, wider crop.
Peter
Hi Peter. Noise is a problem here. Two quick questions. Why ISO 200? Why did you need sharpening? I have a few suggestions, but I'd like to know sort of where you were coming from. regards~Bill
Thanks for the re-post Alfred; I see what you mean, I was trying to give the sky some color.
Bill, ISO was probably on auto, I guess I should have kicked it up a bit to get faster ss. As far as sharpening, if it improves the image, I apply it, just went to far on my original post. Appreciate any and all suggestions.
Peter, auto ISO explains alot, and since I never use it, I wouldn't have thought about it. The degree the image was cropped, another thing I often fail to consider, has alot to do with image detail. etc. The subsequent posts after the first one look much better. Also, the cost of sharpening an image is often noise. Apply that to an already noisy image is a recipe for disaster.
In the first place, now this is my opinion of course, there are very few instances where auto ISO is useful. There are some, but I think that the greater the control the photographer has, the more likely a good image will result. Picking the proper ISO is a good place to start.
Overcast day, my absolute favorite, ISO 1000-1600. And I am using your exact setup, making sure you've upgraded to V4 on the firmware.
Expose to the right; take a few tests shots, examine your histogram. A few blinkies no problem: the A-700 has a very good dynamic range. The absolute worst thing you can do to a digital image is underexpose it. There is no fix. Period.
Use Adobe camera Raw to do as much as you can. Use the recovery/ exposure sliders to take care of the clipped highlights, use "curves" that has Highlights/Lights/Darks/Shadows sliders. Once you've opened the image up in PSE, and try this stuff you will get halos and other nasty stuff.
My question about sharpness was important as well. If the image is not pretty sharp out of the camera, which should be the case with the 40-700G/A700 combo, I would go back and try to determine why not. With this image, and you did realize the cause; insufficient shutter speed.
There are other reasons that can come into play, such as focusing errors, and it is important to figure out the reasons, so you can try to avoid them in the future.
regards~Bill
Osprey in Flight
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