Gray-necked Wood-rail

[Richard Stern]

After trying in vain to get a decent image of this species skulking in the mangroves in Belize recently, when we got to Tikal they were strutting around in the open like so many chickens. I tried to get the ideal combination of noise, sharpness and color here, but I'm not sure if I have succeeded -e.g. what about the background?.

D300, Tamron 200-500, hand-held.

Exposure time: 1/640 s
F number: 6.3
Exposure program: Aperture priority
ISO speed rating: 1250


Richard

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Beautiful bird what ever it is. Love the bg

[Alfred Forns]

I like the bg Richard !!! The low angle is just great and you nailed the exp/point of focus Sure would like for that head to be a bit more to the plane Makes a big difference Would also try lowering the noise At 1250 with colorful bg the /D300 does produce noise Under this conditions would have shot wide open and lowered the ss if necessary

Besides noise the high ISO will reduce the edge sharpness to a degree The get a different look With my D300 I'm fairly comfortable to 800 and higher depending on bg !!! Light ones are more forgiving !!!

[Judd Patterson]

Fine job Richard! A really unique species and the low angle is perfect. I agree with Alfred that the noise levels (and your noise removal) have resulted in a less than sharp image. It would be best to stay at ISO 800 or expose so that your histogram is farther to the right to keep the noise under control. Nice work.

[Harold Davis]

hi richard. never seen a rail like this so thanks for sharing!! agree with al and judd about the head angle, but i'd guess f/6.3 was probably wide open at 500mm with that lens so you did the best you could. looks like the image could use a bit of cw rotation too.

thanks again for sharing.

[Arthur Morris]

The critques above are right on so nothing left for me to say except ditto and keep on keeping on.
later and love, artie