Tree Swallows Galore!
We have a very large number of tree swallows looking for nesting sites. After a long stretch of gloomy, cloudy, rainy weather the last few days were perfect. I tried out my new D7000 for birds in flight photography. Of course, I chose a very difficult bird to photograph due to their speed as well as acrobatics and quick turns in flight. This is one of the keepers. Let me know what you think.
Linda
Nikon D7000, Nikkor 28-300 @ 300, ISO 800, 7.1, 1/1250, +1 EC, hand held
Wow. Great capture. Calling this bird "difficult" is an understatement. They are so fast. I like the composition. The placement in the frame seems perfect.
Hi Linda, congratulations on getting this image of a very difficult bird to get inflight!! Pose looks great! Here is a repost with a somewhat different composition, more sharpening on the bird, some boost in levels, colour saturation, S/H and saving as sRGB for web presentation. Would love to hear your thoughts. Obviously, working on the original would result in a much better result with less noise etc.
Cheers,
Ofer
http://www.oferlevyphotography.com
Last edited by Ofer Levy; 04-16-2011 at 07:39 AM.
Wonderful shot, Linda. I can only imagine how hard it is to get a shot like this of a swallow. I think Ofer has done great work on the image and I really like his repost.
Tree Swallow are not easiest subject to photograph in flight, but you've done very well! My first thought was that the subject could go brighter, so Ofer's repost addresses that. I also like the modified comp. I do prefer the sky colour in the original. Well done Linda!
Very nice effort on a very difficult subject! I like the positioning in the frame with the diagonal wing spread. And the image is sharp and well exposed.
Ofer's repost also looks good, although I prefer the sky color in the op.
Well done Linda!
Thanks everyone. Yes, they are difficult but you can have success when you have a cooperating group and a nest box along with a bit of wind from the one's back! Watching them carefully to see how they approach and veer from one flight path to another can help to get them in focus long enough to get a good shot. But I shot up a lot of electrons on them to get a few decent shots.
Thanks, Ofer for your repost. I like the brightening and sharpening you did. I think I'll try that on the original but mask out the sky since I like the darker sky color which represents to actual sky color when I was shooting. The slight crop also is interesting. I was trying to keep the eye at the top third line and I think your crop moves it a bit lower. But, in some ways I like it! So much for the ROT.
Linda
Hi Linda,Originally Posted by Linda Dulak
The colour of the sky in your original post cannot be the actual sky colour when you where shooting as it is a result of saving the image as ADOBE RGB which makes colours look flat and de-saturated. Attached your original converted to sRGB which is the correct colour space for web presentation. The colour of the sky in this version is probably much closer to how the sky looked like when you took the shot....
Sorry Ofer, but I was there with Linda when she captured her image. The color of the sky in her original post is in fact the correct color of the sky as we both saw it.Hi Linda,
The colour of the sky in your original post cannot be the actual sky colour when you where shooting as it is a result of saving the image as ADOBE RGB which makes colours look flat and de-saturated. Attached your original converted to sRGB which is the correct colour space for web presentation. The colour of the sky in this version is probably much closer to how the sky looked like when you took the shot....
Hi Norman, no need to be sorry - just read my comment carefully:Sorry Ofer, but I was there with Linda when she captured her image. The color of the sky in her original post is in fact the correct color of the sky as we both saw it.
I HAVEN'T changed anything in the last post except for the colour space - from ADOBE RGB 98 to sRGB which is the correct colour space for web presentation.
That means that the colour of the sky in the last post is how it was captured by the camera.
By the way, it is byond me how anyone calims to remember the exact colour of anything with so many hues that look so similar...
Ofer: I see no difference between my op and your repost in pane 10. Perhaps that's because I use color managed browsers, either Firefox 3.6.16 or Safari 5.05. If you are using a browser that is not color managed or poorly color managed, you may see the difference, but I don't. Or is it my old eyes???
I'm really quite confused by your assertion that the image is posted in Adobe RBG as my workflow involves shooting in Adobe RGB, then doing whatever processing on the image I prefer in CS5 and in Adobe RGB. Then I save, using the "Save for the Web" tab. My understanding is that this will convert the image to sRGB and a resolution of 72 dpi. Often when I use Save for Web I have to go back to check whether any of the colors are now pegged since the color space in sRGB is smaller and although it was originally captured with detail in the reds or yellows (usually) they may not be able to be displayed in the sRGB color space since it is a much smaller color space. So, am I wrong that the use of "Save for the Web" in CS5 does not change the image to sRGB? And what difference does it make that I shoot in Adobe RGB? It is the color space I use for printing my images and gives me better differentiation of colors so I'm not going to change that.
As for the color of the sky, I really don't like the change that occurred in your first repost. It's got a cast that I don't like and I prefer the original post. Frankly, it's my image and I will opt to keep the original sky color. As you can see from the other comments, it's consistent that others like the darker sky as well.
Linda
Hi Linda,
I also shoot in Adobe RGB and convert to sRGB for web. In this case you make sure the photo will look as it looks in Photoshop on all browsers.
I never use the "Save for web" - I just convert everything manually. Just go Edit - Convert to profile - and select sRGB I CE6 1966 2.1
Hope that helps,
Cheers,
Ofer
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