Repost: Snow-Topped Canada Geese

Gallery: AvianPosted January 18, 201445 views7 comments

These snow-covered Giant Canada Geese are members of a huge flock in the Zumbro River. I like how the feathers go well with the gold-colored water. The image is not as sharp as I would like, possibly because of the slow shutter speed for a 300mm lens.

Your comments and critiques are appreciated.

Location: Zumbro River, near North Broadway, Rochester, Minnesota, USA

Date and Time: December 8, 2013 at 07:46

Equipment: Pentax K-5, Pentax DA* 300mm, monopod

Exposure: 1/60s, f/4.0, iso 400

Crop: About 10% of the left and 20% of the top to remove the other flock members.

Post processing in Lightroom 5: Reduced noise and increased sharpness. Cranked up contrast.

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on January 18, 2014 at 7:55 PM

Tough exposure with a monopod, Randy. To my eye, the snow looks like it might be a bit blown in places, but it's hard to tell for sure. I don't know the K-5's noise characteristics, but I might have tried boosting the iso more, if the camera can handle it. I too like the color of the water.

Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments

Comment posted by John Robinson on January 18, 2014 at 8:03 PM

Great colour on the water. I would take some off the bottom and make the pic more of a pano. Bit off the left too I reckon. Just my take. Cheers
John

Registered on March 2, 2008, 535 Posts, 2453 Comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on January 18, 2014 at 8:24 PM

I agree with both Dennis and John, especially John's cropping suggestions. I believe I would crank the contrast back down, or try the shadow/highlight slider to bring the darks up a bit and the whites down a like amount.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hackley on January 19, 2014 at 2:16 AM

I like the composition with the snow on the back of the geese and the complimentary water color. It is difficult to get detail on moving subjects at 1/60 second. I might have bumped up the ISO to get more shutter speed.

Registered on September 17, 2009, 302 Posts, 5535 Comments

Comment posted by Ákos Lumnitzer on January 19, 2014 at 5:05 AM

Agree with whites. Look a bit over the top to me too.
Don't be afraid of trialling higher ISO and shooting to the right. Histogram pushed as far right as possible with minimal (or no) clipping of highlights. Will give you the best data for processing.

Nicely cropped as presented.

Registered on April 24, 2004, 25 Posts, 510 Comments

Comment posted by Randy Runtsch on January 19, 2014 at 7:13 AM

Thanks for the comments and advice, Dennis, John, Phil, Jim, and Ákos. Here is an altered repost.

In this version, the left side has been more tightly cropped, with a tad of the bottom removed. I wanted to retain the wavy black neck reflections. The contrast has been cranked down, and the highlights, shadows, whites, and blacks reduced as well. This returned some detail to the snow on the geese's backs.

I think that the Pentax K-5 is pretty good with noise reduction at high ISO. I need to experiment more with high ISO and its noise reduction settings. Plus, a tripod would have helped in this situation. A monopod was chosen to capture flying geese. But, it was too dark for that.

It's time to drive to the Mississippi River this morning for some early morning photography.

Registered on October 30, 2013, 50 Posts, 445 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on January 19, 2014 at 9:38 AM

Your repost is an improvement. I like the copper colored water. If the geese above which you have cropped out weren't there, your image quality may be better without such a large crop. The comp on your second version is much better. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments