Male Purple Martin in Flight ~ High Key

[Jim Fenton]

The place I try and create PM images is right on the coast and the blue skies there are never really blue early in the morning...they bare sort of a milky whiteish blue.

When you start using +3/3 EV in order to get enough light on these fast flying beauties, the sky goes almost white.....so in this case, during processing I simply drove it fully white for this presentation. No...a Better Beamer doesn't help in this situation.

Nikon D300s, 600VR, ISO 640, f4.5, 1/1600, NearUniWB preset, +2.3EV applied.

Thoughts?

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Jim, IQ, details, color, bird angle, wing position....all excellent. If mine, I'd move the bird a tad to the left

I like high key a lot. For this one, I dont know why, but I'd prefer some subtle variations in the BG.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

Great spread wing pose, clean view of head, nice angle in frame.

I appreciate the high key concept, but the bird is too bright for my personal taste.

I might also consider sharpening the eye a bit more.

Cheers

Randy

[Jim Fenton]

I originally did have the bird a bit more left but it felt too empty to the right.

Subtle variation as in a touch of cyan or???? I just really don't care for a light milky cyan personally but I will take a look at it again.

[Jim Fenton]

Part of the problem with these birds Randy is that the minute I start to darken the blue / cyans, the detail very quickly is reduced.

I haven't figured a way around that one yet.

[Randy Stout]

Jim:

I appreciate your point. In the repost I ran a multiply layer at 37% on the bird only. It is fairly subtle, but for me the slight loss of detail on the belly is offset by the more natural looking brightness. Personal taste perhaps.

Cheers

Randy

[gail bisson]

Hi Jim,
I really like the sharpness of the image. I am also OK with the placement of the bird in the frame. great diagonal line created by the wings. Love the fanned tail.
I, too, find the blue unnatural looking. It almost looks like you were shooting in midday sun but I know you weren't. Would decreasing the contrast help?
Gail

[arash_hazeghi]

great flight pose and sharpness, they fly fast! this is a tough one to get looking right with a high key BG.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Very very nice one Jim!
I do like Randy's repost. A very hard bird to expose and you did well with the sky. I have the same problem down here.

[dankearl]

Great photo of a Really tough bird to get in flight.
Very nice.

[Karl Egressy]

Fantastic flight shot of this fast flying bird, Jim.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice pose and sharp. Not sure what the problem is with the overall look of the bird but the blues look strange indeed.... Possibly lightened too much???

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Jim, good see the martin large in the frame, and you nailed the wingspread. Im fine with the placement, high key BG, and Randy's subtle repost does look better.

[Craig Markham]

Jim, excellent in-flight capture of this fast, erratic bird, ideal body position. I think that in your effort to increase visible detail, you over-lightened some areas such as the shadow of the breast projected on the bird's left underwing -- to the point that it doesn't quite look like a real shadow. Purple Martin males are extremely dark, even in bright daylight. They would just be black and gray birds, were it not for the feathers' microstructure that diffracts the light to create the blue iridescence. I think that bringing up the shadow brightness to near-bluebird levels was counterproductive. Better to keep the brightening subtle, revealing only hints of the underlying structure. Better to capitalize on the patterns created by the bright diffractive iridescence playing upon the dark areas. That's what makes this bird so distinctive (and challenging!).

Craig

[Jim Fenton]

Geez Craig...you're no fun :)

I have a few more with nice wing spreads and I will do one of those up with the suggestions everyone has made here.

[Doug Brown]

Impressive capture to be sure, with a great pose. I agree in particular with the suggestion to move the bird to the left, and also to reprocess the bird to give it a more natural look. The high-key sky doesn't bother me in the least.