Sanderling
Sandy Hook, NJ 2 weeks back. Shot with a D200/Sigma 50-500 lens, no flash, handheld. Cleaned up the beach a bit. Slight sharpening, but I think maybe it needs a bit more? Did not want to over sharpen or lose the sense of movement from the bird shaking vigorously to dry itself off. Manual - F7.1 - 1/1000 - ISO250 - +2.7 - 500mm
I did not remove the shell behind the bird for fear of wrecking the shadow.
Jeff,
Love the pose, I like shots like this that show the moments of life. I did not check the exposure but it looks a tad hot in the middle. Lots of bright tones here, remember to set exposure for the brights. In this case, a faster shutter might have helped. Consider increasing the ISO to get more shutter speed. I assume the +2.7 was EC in AV mode a tad too much IMO. As I get older, I appreciate the story being told by the photographer and this has a nice feel. When birds move like this I think a bit of blur is alright and shows motion. Thanks for sharing, on balance I like it.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 09-22-2011 at 05:19 PM.
Jeff, nice moment captured - love the pose and action as well as the nice color rendition. I do think just a tiny bit more sharpening would be good. Exposure was just a tad hot giving you some blown whites in the underwing area. The water droplets flying around help to tell the story and add interest. Nice one!
"It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera... they are made with the eye, heart, and head." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Please visit me on the web at http://kerryperkinsphotography.com
wow nice capture! i agree that the picture can use a bit more sharpening as well.
Hi Jeff,
I like it. Good head angle and action pose. The bits of sand/water flying off of the bird are nice. I don't mind the shell, but if it were me I probably would have removed it. I don't think the shadow would have been a problem with some careful cloning.
You didn't mention if this was cropped or full-frame. If it is cropped, you might consider loosening the crop a bit to give a bit more room and position the bird more off-center in the frame, because it seems just a little tight to me on the left/right.
As for the burned out whites - try using the burn tool to gently tone that down a bit. The best way would be to use a separate layer and layer mask if possible.
Sharpening - definitely needs more. Make sure you sharpen AFTER resizing to web size. Again, I would use a layer mask and sharpen only the parts of the bird you want to be sharp.
thanks
Charles
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