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It's a Rough Road
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It's a Rough Road

by David Rowe

Gallery: AvianPosted October 11, 2017225 views6 comments
Budleigh Salterton, England
D810     300mm   f2.8  G ED VR2  x  tc 1.4 series 3
f/10  ISO 800   1/1250s    EV 0.00  WBA    Center Weighted   Handheld
Active D–Lighting  Normal
Cropped  RAW image 33%   Photoshop CS6
 
In this I’m looking for an action shot of the bird (Little Egret) striding out, displaying those natty galoshes. My view angle was an estimated +30° which normally would have produced distortion – however in this instance I’m pleased with the result. I cropped a lot of extraneous material.
Thanks for viewing
Your crits and nits are most welcome
David

 

Comments

6 comments
Comment posted by Floyd Hopper on October 11, 2017 at 7:34 PM
Well done with the exposure and contrast on the whites of this snowy egret.  I think I would have tried to "soften" the bg. Action shots are always more intersting than a "static" image of a bird.  But, with nature photography you get what you get.  Well done.devil
Registered on May 1, 2009, 652 Posts, 762 Comments
Comment posted by Richard Ditch on October 11, 2017 at 7:34 PM
The egret looks pretty good, although I would prefer a lower shooting position to avoid the 30 degree angle. Light appears to have been quite soft, and I suspect that helped with the tonal range.

I don't understand why you would use Active D lighting while shooting in raw and converting in Adobe Camera Raw. There are lots of long discussions on the web that advise against this, pointing out that ADL will reduce exposure overall but needs Nikon software to interpret the ADL parameters in conversion.
Registered on November 1, 2003, 1031 Posts, 12705 Comments
Comment posted by Floyd Hopper on October 11, 2017 at 7:34 PM
Well done with the exposure and contrast on the whites of this snowy egret.  I think I would have tried to "soften" the bg. Action shots are always more intersting than a "static" image of a bird.  But, with nature photography you get what you get.  Well done.devil
Registered on May 1, 2009, 652 Posts, 762 Comments
Comment posted by David Rowe on October 12, 2017 at 11:39 AM
Thanks Richard for putting me wise about in-camera Active D–Lighting. A couple years ago when photographing brightly lit gulls, I changed the setting to ‘High’. The result was disappointing, and I felt that there was a noticeable diminution in image quality. Until now, without exception, I have been using the ‘Normal’ setting. I’ll reset to ‘Off’ and report back on my findings. For this take, the EV should read -0.30, not 0.00. as shown
David
 
Registered on December 20, 2013, 133 Posts, 286 Comments
Comment posted by Peter J. Morrissey on October 12, 2017 at 1:18 PM
Hi David
The whites look good and the detail is great.  I sometimes  wish the birds would be more cooperative, when we spend all this time photographing them.
Peter
Registered on July 3, 2011, 188 Posts, 969 Comments
Comment posted by Dennis Plank on October 13, 2017 at 5:55 PM
The composition looks good, David, and I like the striding stance.  Nice job on the whites.
Registered on January 28, 2008, 1767 Posts, 23192 Comments