Jackass Penguin portrait

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Camera	Canon EOS 7D
Exposure	0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture	f/8.0
Focal Length	400 mm
ISO Speed	160
Exposure Bias	0 EV

with the 100-400 L lens
Penguin colony near Simon's town, SA


Capetown0157 by docsanjeev, on Flickr

[John Chardine]

Nice young one Sanjeev. I like portraits like this. They are a bit of a challenge figuring out how much of the bird to include but I like what you've done. It would be optimal to see some more detail in the dark tones. Penguins are tough in bright light. They are contrasty birds and easy to render the darker tones such as the eye with almost no detail. In this case you could use some high-dynamic range technique and use the Fill light slider in Adobe Camera Raw to open up the dark tones. You could also increase the Exposure slider so long as you don't push the light tones too far to the right. The Recovery slider can pull the light tones selectively to the right. All this is unnecessary if you choose to go out in softer light.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Thank you John, I get your point and will follow your advice.
Regards
Sanjeev

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Sanjeev,

John hit the high points and the exposure is well controlled given the tonal range of this image - nice. Just curious were you standing sometimes a lower perspective makes animal shots stronger to see the world at there level. of course, it can also introduce background elements but as you grow you will come to understand that the entire frame must be controlled to produce a compelling shot, the foreground, background and subject must come together. Thanks for sharing I love these guys.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Hi Jeff, I was standing on a board walk on the shores of the beach where the african penguin colony was located. I squatted down and this was the lowest angle I could get. I was a part of a group and we were urged to rush, so not much time to choose the right location :-(
Appreciate your comments.
Sanjeev

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Sanjeev, good points made above and I would only add that the bg could be cleaned up (cloned up?) a bit, especially on the right of the bird. Nice job under the conditions, thanks for sharing!