Canon 7D lens 100-400, focal length 400mm
1/640, f 9, ISO 100
This was a life bird for me and although it was about 10 degrees outside, Spring was everywhere as soon I saw this beauty! Taken at Edwin Forsythe NWR in NJ, what a fabulous refuge.
What a beautiful image. The image is sharp and the color is beautiful and the exposure is good. There are two things I might to do make it even better. If you can lighten up under the wings without having them appear over processed that would be even better. The crop is good as is but I might try it a little tighter by taking a small bit off the left and right.
Ann, Ann, Ann!!! Makes me think of spring as well! What a beautiful Meadowlark! You did an outstanding job of getting just the right balance between exposure and shutter speed here and a very nice wing spread as well with the face clearly visible. Outstanding!
A couple of very small things...
First I'd take a tiny bit off the right side only - we always want more NS (negative space) on the side the bird is flying into than the side he's flying away from so think about taking a bit off the right and seeing if you need to even add a bit more to the left to get the bird out of dead center.
There's a tiny spot on the bottom of his beak - easy clone job to clean that up.
I like Jon's suggestion of opening up the shadows under the wings but I doubt you'll be able to get much more without losing quality so if it's a choice - choose quality and leave well enough alone.
For a more dramatic look, angle the front of the bird up just a few more degrees when you move him to the right a bit within the frame.
Yes, this is not an easy target Ann. Passerines in flight! Outstanding effort! Agree with comments above. Actually lightening up the whole image would work I think, at least on my monitor. Considering they are in shadow, there's detail under the wings. I took a look at your settings and although I know you have to be careful with noise on the 7D, I think you could have upped the ISO from 100 to say 400 and gained 2 extra stops (four times) the light. This would have a allowed a much higher shutter speed, and maybe a little some extra light for the exposure (although the whites are pretty well where they should be here).
Did you run any noise reduction as there a a certain smoothness to the image which sometimes comes from this?
Spring is on it's way. You have had a rough winter. I've been watching the news, because I grew up in NJ.
The only thing I would change is allow a bit more noise. It looks a bit over softened. I hope spring comes quickly for you.
Nancy
Eastern Meadowlark
Posting Permissions
