Darts and lances

Gallery: AvianPosted February 10, 2014114 views7 comments

Geneva, Switzerland 2/4/14 1.45PM
D300S 150-500mm at 500mm
ISO 500
1/1250s at f8.0 EV 0.00 WB manual Center Weighted Average
Hand held Fairly bright direct sunlight
Original 8 bit TIFF file cropped from 35M to 13.6Mb
Photoshop CS3 No Noise reduction No sharpening

I'm still concentrating on photographing black and white birds in high levels of illumination. This Black Headed Gull is looking to the future and appears to be pretty much in charge of the situation. However, I'm bothered by the problem of noise, which I believe to be a worsening issue with my D300S. Is this possible? Initially, three or four years ago, with this camera, I used to shoot practically everything on ISO 800 - no noise problem!

Your comments, suggestions and criticisms are most welcome.
Thanks for looking

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Scott Frye on February 10, 2014 at 8:17 AM

Water looks really good but I like to see a catch light in live animals --

Registered on February 3, 2007, 387 Posts, 1136 Comments

Comment posted by Ronald Murphy on February 10, 2014 at 9:28 AM

You caught some very nice reflections. It does seem a bit noisy, especially noticeable in the dark blue areas.

Registered on March 13, 2012, 279 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on February 10, 2014 at 10:03 AM

Can't address the noise issue with time as you've explained it David.
Perhaps others have some experience with it.
I've used the 1D M3 for 7 years & 170,000 clicks and I see no change thus far.
Great shot (other than the noise), might be better if the bird wasn't looking to the future?

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Ditch on February 10, 2014 at 10:39 AM

I like the simple graphic qualities of this with the limited color and the reflection.

I'm surprised that this gull's hod appears black: in spite of its name my experience with the few I've seen in the U.S. the hood has ben a dark chocolate brown. The black bill in this image is also different from the dark red I've seen here. But looking through my Lars Jonsson Birds of Europe I don't see any other likely candidate species.

I shoot with a pair of D300 bodies and use ISO 800 with little worry about noise. Neither has shown any apparent change in noise.Are you under exposing more now than in the past? Cropping more? Using different software to convert and process your images?

Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments

Comment posted by Dennis Plank on February 10, 2014 at 6:47 PM

Nice, David. I like the broken reflection caused by the waves. The noise isn't too bad in the larger image. I don't know if there's a problem with aging sensors-I hope not.

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

Comment posted by Jerry Austin on February 11, 2014 at 5:35 PM

I love the water. Some NR would help this image. Prehaps trying to get a little more detail from the head is worth a shot. Overall, very nice.

Registered on January 6, 2012, 651 Posts, 3448 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on February 14, 2014 at 8:54 AM

Aside from the noise issue...The reflections are awesome! Did you have to bring the exposure up on this post shot? I find I can get away with a higher ISO, but if I'm even just a little underexposed the noise is very bad. Sharon

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