Distracting?

Does anyone else {along with me} find the rocky area of bg a slight distraction?

I managed a good number of similar frames, in an attempt to capture the bird at the moment when the waves covered the rocky bg, but my timing was a bit dodgy on all of them

On the plus side, i decided to actually print this 800iso crop at A4 {from an A3'ish full frame}, and with the aid of noise ninja, i can't notice any real difference in quality from a similar 400iso crop/print.

I think i shall try and push my luck with 1000iso, just to see how far i can go {in case i ever need to call upon it}.

Who would have dream't that a small format A3 at 800iso would have been usable....20 or 30yrs ago

D2h
400
1.6tc
800iso

Alan

I think it would most certainly be better without the rocks in the background but there is a good amount of seperation to make the bird stand out. You'd never guess its 800iso from this web sized image thats for sure. Tristan

It is a tad distracting Alan, but perhaps not as much as you imagine - certainly it's not a right-off.

The entire rock bar could be removed with some rather tedious work - I suppose only you could decide if you fancied a go

But the image is still great as is, and shows just what that D2H is capable of - good one

A little distracting Alan but not the end of the world.
At the sacrifice of shutter speed I used to use as low an ISO as possible.Now like yourself I have found that higher ISO's are exceptable.

Major.

I am ambivolent on this one, it is a great shot from either point of view;

There are times when the background helps put the bird into habitat/context, so in that respect I don't mind the background at all - Purple Sandpiper are a rocky coastline bird so the background works well here as well. My only small nit is that the black primaries/tail are lost slightly against the dark background, but that is very minor point

Equally the standard "clean" background shot would work with the bird perched on this rock as the bladderwrack adds some interest and conveys a rocky shoreline environment.

and a blue sea to boot, I never get thes conditions whenever visiting Portland Bill when looking for P. Sand.

Like the hint of enviroment with the rocks in the background. As already said, the separation between subject & background is in my opinion, enough.

Purple Sands are one of those birds that I find almost impossibe to take pleasing images of so this one has me seeing green mist a little! The background is a bit distracting, there's no denying it, but the shot is so great I don't think it matters. I love it!

Hi Alan,

I'd be more than happy with that distracting BG , providing a gorgeous Purple Sand was standing atop a very nice perch , super image Alan.


Regards

Andy...

Its a fine shot Alan and the bird is well separated from the background. Perhaps the far rocks are slightly distracting or rather they don't really add anything to the image.

Regarding modern cameras & software for high iso, yes they are amazing - in film days my high speed stuff was kodachrome 200 - sharp but very grainy. Anything above that was just too awful to use.

Na, it's fine to me Alan. Maybe a bit of work on the tail to separate them slightly. won't find a much better perch than that I don't reckon

It's fine with me Alan! If background is bothering you, you shall be able to select foreground in PS and blur the rest of the photo a bit more. But for me it's all right. Background is OOF enough for bird to stand out, and as Mike mentioned this is a coastal bird and live in such a habitat.

Cheers,
Marko

I like it. I think it shows the enviro of the Sandpiper, much like the reeds in Phillips sedge warbler shot show his habitat too, it does not detract from the picture in my opinion and in fact adds to it in this case.

Alan,

This would work better if the bill tip was lifted clear of the background. The rocks are OOF enough, but its this point of merger that is the real 'problem' IMO.

Andrew

Hello Alan

Cheers
more purple sands to look at great shot as is in IMHO, love the context in the enviro.



Danny