Least Sandpiper

[Ian Cassell]

Canon 7D
Canon EF400mm f/5.6L

1/1250sec f/6.3 ISO 200 HH

S/H and sharpening in CS5

[Julie Kenward]

Lovely portrait, Ian! The bird is nicely exposed and you got a nice catch light in his eye. I'd definitely clone out the yellow patch that runs along the right frame line - nothing to add to the image so might as well delete it. I'm torn about the reflection, though...the mud clumps inside the reflection area are so OOF that it makes for a sloppy reflection. I think if this were mine I'd try cloning/patching over it. I would leave that one little pinpoint of a reed sticking out that is directly below the beak and the clumps on the left edge are fine as they aren't right in the middle of the viewer's eye.

Nice details on the bird and a very nice angle as well!

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, Jules. Well, that blob on the right is an easy removal and I agree it should be evicted. As for the reflection, I think I may have hit the limits of my PP ability. I can crop it off, but cloning/patching is stretching me ... :) I'll keep wrestling with it and see if I can get any further.

[WIlliam Maroldo]

Nice image Ian and exposure is excellent. I think its too tight in the frame, but the biggest problem is it appears the sharpest focus is the feathers on the side of the bird. The closer you are to a subject the smaller the DOF any given Fstop will give you, and F/6.3 would unlikely allow you to get the entire bird in sharp focus. You could have focused on the head, which doesn't appear to have happened here, at the expense of areas further back being OOF, or you could have focused on the point you did here at used lets say F/9-11 and you would have the entire bird in sharp focus. Another useful thing to remember is the area of sharp focus extends behind and in-front of the point of AF aquisition. regards~Bill

[John Chardine]

Good comments above. I see quite a bit of noise in the BG- maybe sharpening was done on the whole image rather than just the subject, which is preferable.

[Ian Cassell]

Thanks, all. Bill, good ideas. I usually have too much DOF, but I think you're correct here. You're right, John. I sharpened the whole thing and didn't do any NR on this one. My bad.