Drake Harlequin Flank

[Arthur Morris]

I created this image this afternoon at Barnegat with the Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens, the 1.4X III TC, and the EOS-1D MIV. ISO 400. Evaluative metering -2/3 stop: 1/30 sec. (you gotta love four-stop IS) at f/14.

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Doug Brown]

Beautiful frame; I love how the best color is in sharpest focus. Amazing though how shallow the DOF is at 1120mm, even at f/14.

[Dave Woeller]

I agree, the framing is exquisite on this. The techs are boggling in themselves and I'm curous as to how much/little PP is involved. Amazing sharpness and color.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks both. The sweetest colors were closest to me so focusing there was a no-brainer. The framing too was sort of out of necessity. Converted in ACR, NIK Color Efex Pro 4: 50% Tonal Contrast and 100% White Neutralizer. Color Efex has changed my workflow for the best. By miles. Learn more (including discount info) by scrolling down here.

[denise ippolito]

Artie, Great detail and I think that the brown down feathers (?) are cool! Nice OOTB thinking.

[Roger Clark]

Artie,

Here is my view of your image. I cropped off the top and bottom. The bottom I felt was distracting. The top being out of focus detracted from the impact (in my view). I cropped so the diagonal lines in the top corners were approximately symmetrical. I then sharpened with Richardson-Lucy deconvolution 3x3 10 iterations.

Roger

[Arthur Morris]

Artie, Here is my view of your image. I cropped off the top and bottom. The bottom I felt was distracting. The top being out of focus detracted from the impact (in my view). I cropped so the diagonal lines in the top corners were approximately symmetrical. I then sharpened with Richardson-Lucy deconvolution 3x3 10 iterations. Roger

Thanks for the repost Roger. It is always a good idea to consider alternatives. As I suspected, however, important parts of the pattern(s) were disrupted by the crop, especially the complete tract of brick red feathers and the white sort of Nike swoosh at the top. I was not thrilled either by the bottom of the frame. I wish that I had moved my tripod back a foot so that I could have included a wider strip of seaweed at the bottom.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Beautiful markings on this guy. I like the sliver of seaweed at the bottom and also like the leg and part of the foot showing on the right side of the frame. Nicely framed.