Awesome! You are really lucky you can get so close to these magnificent birds! And this image is quite unusual and eye catching.
I only regret you could not get more of the birds below in the frame, having them would have given you a stunner!! Rare as it is in bird photography, maybe a wider lens would have helped!
I think this is an Interesting image. This must have been exciting to see. I like the clouds and how the water leads me through the image. I also like the inclusion of the habitat. The combination of standing and flying birds adds interests.
If you have it I would consider adding some space at the bottom as I would prefer to see either a clean edge or fewer of the birds clipped. I realize that this isn't easy with so many birds.
I find the bird on the ground well exposed but, the the flying birds appear to be under exposed. Then of course it you had the flying birds properly exposed the birds on the ground would most likely been over exposed. If this were mine, I would reprocess the the original file twice. Once to lighten the flying birds and second for the birds on the ground. Then combine the two with masks to reveal the best of both conversions. One other option would be to try and selectively lighten the flying birds in photoshop with a shadow/highlight lawyer and mask.
I would prefer that the flying birds had been angling towards you but, I wouldn't have been able to resist pressing the shutter release either.
Was this in raw? then you can also output using 2 different exposure settings, and "merge to HDR"
And again, this IS awesome, just sparks your imagination so you start thinking of yourself among these birds... surreal indeed...!
Yes it is in raw off couse...but I haven't a lot of known about what you say ...please could you give me more anotice about ? (I use CS4 and for raw conversion Camera Raw, or Capute One or Lightroom)...
Well i'm no raw expert, i read of this in digital camera world magazine...
1 you open raw in acr... adjust exposure etc. so sitting cranes are well exposed... output to tiff with one name..
2 you open raw again, adjust exposure again so flying crane is well exposed... output to tiff with another name...
3 in cs4, file>automate>herge to hdr , load 2 previous tiffs... follow instructions... set white point as needed..
I suppose you could also output one tiff at an intermediate exposure... It's best to experiment and see what gives you most pleasing results.
I don't know if this works better than image>adjustments>shadow/highlights and masking, and in skilled hands s/h and masking can work wonders.. Can somebody please elaborate further and correct errors if any?
I love this shot. If you can improve the exposure of the flying bird it may be better, but it's difficult to pull detail out of such dark tone when backlit as in this scene. I would play with either HDR or manual blending as others have commented. But, that being said, this image has such an artistic and surreal quality, that I think its fine as is. It looks ominous.