First time posting. This is a shot I took on the early morning trip to Nickerson Beach, Long Island, NY on 8/17 with Artie and Denise. It was an awesome day.
Light sharpening thru Photoshop. 1/1300 sec, f6.3, ISO 400, Canon 50D
Hi - big warm welcome to BPN - Dont hesitate to jump right in and eave comments on other peoples images - no better or faster way to improve your own skills - all we ask is that you say what it is you like or dont like about the image.
Love the action and the fish is positioned perfectly - eye visible.
Is this a large crop??? - IQ seems a little lacking.
Whites on the neck look like they could be a a little hot - and no indication of the eye being visible at all - these guys are difficult in anything but soft light - have to get detail in those blacks and keep the whites in check as well.
Might be worth posting the original with no changes so we can see what is going on.
Welcome to BPN, very nice first post. I love the pose of the bird with full wings up and the fish is very big plus, also good job on acquiring focus on bird in flight. I wish I could see the eye and it would make this a stronger image. There seem to be a lot of artifacts around the body and the wings, perhaps from PP? As Lance mentioned, black and white birds are not easy and you need good light for support :D
Thanks for the helpful feedback. You're right in that it was a large crop so I lost some detail. Also can't figure out how you set exposure on a blacka nd white bird without over-exposing the whites and under-exposing the blacks. Is that what HDR is all about?
Last edited by Dan Greenburg; 09-05-2010 at 08:18 AM.
Hi Dan,
I was wondering if you were going to post. It was nice meeting you and I enjoyed shooting with you, glad you made the plunge!! Great advice already given here. When I expose for a bird that has mostly whites as this one. I expose for the whites. I make sure I have no blinkies on the whites but I do make sure that I have information in the fifth box. When I am exposing for a bird that is mainly black w/ only a touch of whites sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice the whites. In any case here are a couple of helpful links: Saving the Whites Important Exposure How-to Info
For the second one you will need to scroll down the page to get the info. (it looks like HTML script but the info is there) Looking forward to more.:)
Dynamic range is the range where camera sensor can record information between darkest and lightest part of the scene. So if there any part of the scene that outside this range you will loose information, hence detail in the image. HDR is a technique that help capture a scene with dynamic range over that of the camera sensor can handle, but the only technique of HDR (that I know of) is to take multiple exposure of the same scene and blend them together. So HDR is like impossible with bird in flight since the subject won't stay still for you to take multiple exposures.
Good comments from everyone and Denise's thread links should get you all ready for the next time. You did manage to freeze the action and got a very nice view of the bird in the process. It's harder than it looks, isn't it? ;)
Welcome to BPN - let us know if you need any help getting around the place.
Tern at Nickerson Beach
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