Beautiful flight shot! I wonder if you could sharpen the neck just a bit to bring out a few more details and soften the white just in that part. It is a very nice image. I'm not sure my suggestion makes sense. I keep going back and looking at it. I love the position of the bird and the green near the eye.
James, is this a large crop? You used a 70-200 with a TC and I'm thinking the overall softness of the image is either due to that or to the fact that this comes from a large crop.
You have a beautiful pose and a good HA. Your composition is nice as is the crop. The blue BG is a little funky - you might try opening a hue/saturation adjustment layer, choose blues from the drop down menu, and then scoot that hue slider to the right a bit to see if that doesn't take the cyan out of the color.
Overall, it's a nice image but the quality is definitely a little lower than I'd expect with a 7D.
I like the layout of this image and the way the head is framed by the wing. Some of the whites look a little hot on my monitor. I agree the image is a little soft. Unfortunately, I tested the image with another round of sharpening and it didn't respond well. The image has a lot of potential other than this. One of the biggest challenges in bird photography is producing sharp images and is eminently do-able with good technique and good equipment (which you have). As Jules suggests, a looser crop may give you back some IQ. I notice a dark halo around the upper part of the bird. Not sure where it came from.
Last edited by John Chardine; 01-25-2011 at 08:23 PM.
Jules--thank you for your comments as well. No, there was no crop at all. Not sure about the BG color as I had not adjusted hue at all. However, I did adjust as you suggested.
John--I appreciate you taking the time to respond also. I had not noticed the hot whites, but see them now. I don't see the dark halo, but maybe I am due for a monitor calibration.
Jules and John-this feedback regarding the not-up-to-snuff quality is very helpful and I want to improve image sharpness. I was using the 19-point auto select and the bird was covered. Must be operator error--is the primary culprit camera shake? Other suggestions?
James, I am not personally familiar with the 19-point system but I always go with setting my 40D focus manually so I get it right where I want the sharpest point to be. Camera shake could also account for it but at 1/1600 it's not probable. My guess is the TC is the culprit - a shorter lens with a TC will not usually give you the same quality as the big glass lenses alone. For BIF images, most photographers go to at least a 300mm (if not 400mm) and the pros go with the 500mm and up (many using the 600-800mm range).
Great White Egret
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