Posted by Sean Bolton on November 7, 2006 at 6:01 PM
Hi All
Another from Slimbridge. As Larry commented in his recent post of Tufty's coming into land, they are extremely difficult to track and frame as they descend so rapidly and just seem to almost drop out of the sky when landing.
I managed just one frame of this Tufted as it came into land. Kudos to the 20D for nailing the focus on this fast moving bird. Less kudos to myself for clipping a wing tip but to be honest I was amazed to get anything at all. I have cropped some empty space from the right hand side, otherwise full frame.
Canon 20D, 300mm F4 L, ISO 200, f7.1, 1/1600th, eval metering -1/3rd, AI servo focus, panning on Manfrotto 190B+393 gimball.
I am a bit miffed to have clipped the wing as I think I could visit Slimbridge another 20 times and not get this shot again.
cheers
Sean
Posted by Graeme Lee on November 7, 2006 at 6:09 PM
Yes you've done very well to get this Sean. I've seen them in action! I would have probably only got the tip you clipped. Agree with your own nits, but the exposure and detail look really good.
Graeme
Posted by Larry Corbett on November 7, 2006 at 6:18 PM
oooh nearly an absolute belter.
Fabulous detail in the underside of the wings, they really do "drop" out of the sky it's called "Whiffling", basically to slow down from 70mph to almost 0 and drop down to water level a small duck will simply drop its leading wing to loose it's aerodynamic capapbilities and as you say will drop out of the sky when they are just above the water out will come those big flappy feet to cusion the landing and stop them going ars over tit on the water () it all happens in a split second and capturing it on film er processor is a real challenge, I've been trying to get a satisfactory shot of a tufty whiffling for 12 years!!
Super shot, much enjoyed, thanks for sharing
Posted by John Chapman on November 7, 2006 at 6:27 PM
Hi Sean
great capture and you mentioned the nits
John
Aberdeen
Posted by Nigel Blake on November 8, 2006 at 5:34 AM
Nice one Sean, not at all easy to nail these in the air, impressive.
Posted by David Kjaer on November 8, 2006 at 6:03 AM
Hi Sean
Nice one - worth some work to try and rebuild the wing tip - easy if you have another image showing it!
David
Posted by John Gardner on November 8, 2006 at 6:54 AM
Oooh what a bummer, I heard you swear when you looked at this one for the first time It is a shame about the wing clipping but it's a belter of a shot and definately worth having a go at rebuilding in CS2. Very sharp, awesome focussing. Would just have been a large blur in the f/g with my Nikon AF-S (the S stands for snail's pace I think )
As Dave said, try to repair the wingtip. Otherwise a very fine image, with great details and good exposure
Posted by Philip Kirkham on November 8, 2006 at 11:45 AM
Hello Sean
It's all been said, and well worth the CS work to rebuild.
Best wishes
Phil
Posted by Graham Bailey on November 8, 2006 at 12:06 PM
Shame about the wing stip but still a great capture
Posted by Sean Bolton on November 8, 2006 at 3:47 PM
Thanks for the comments everyone
Yes I did consider a cloning job on this shot. Personally I am loath to clone in stuff that isn't in the original image but as an exercise in Photoshop processing I thought I would have a bash and see if I could pull off a convincing job.
I copied the wingtip from the top wing, inverted it, resized it, pasted it in at the bottom, brought the levels up, cloning in the wing colour down to the tips of the feathers, and then cloned in some sky and tree stuff to finish off.
Discussion
13 repliesAnother from Slimbridge. As Larry commented in his recent post of Tufty's coming into land, they are extremely difficult to track and frame as they descend so rapidly and just seem to almost drop out of the sky when landing.
I managed just one frame of this Tufted as it came into land. Kudos to the 20D for nailing the focus on this fast moving bird. Less kudos to myself for clipping a wing tip
Canon 20D, 300mm F4 L, ISO 200, f7.1, 1/1600th, eval metering -1/3rd, AI servo focus, panning on Manfrotto 190B+393 gimball.
I am a bit miffed to have clipped the wing as I think I could visit Slimbridge another 20 times and not get this shot again.
cheers
Sean
Graeme
Fabulous detail in the underside of the wings, they really do "drop" out of the sky it's called "Whiffling", basically to slow down from 70mph to almost 0 and drop down to water level a small duck will simply drop its leading wing to loose it's aerodynamic capapbilities and as you say will drop out of the sky when they are just above the water out will come those big flappy feet to cusion the landing and stop them going ars over tit on the water (
Super shot, much enjoyed, thanks for sharing
great capture and you mentioned the nits
John
Aberdeen
Nice one - worth some work to try and rebuild the wing tip - easy if you have another image showing it!
David
John
It's all been said, and well worth the CS work to rebuild.
Best wishes
Phil
Yes I did consider a cloning job on this shot. Personally I am loath to clone in stuff that isn't in the original image but as an exercise in Photoshop processing I thought I would have a bash and see if I could pull off a convincing job.
I copied the wingtip from the top wing, inverted it, resized it, pasted it in at the bottom, brought the levels up, cloning in the wing colour down to the tips of the feathers, and then cloned in some sky and tree stuff to finish off.
Can you tell?
cheers
Sean
Best wishes
Phil