Great bathing shot Ray but it's a shame it's a little soft( not sharp ) As I have said many times before on this forum - sharpness is not the end of the world , but it helps in some cases.The shutter speed you used might explain that though. You don't mention the ISO setting which I am sure if boosted could have given you a much faster speed in the light conditions prevailing which are obvious by the picture. The whites are really blown on the neck, but that is a constant problem with Pigeons. They are really easy to get close to in bathing situations like this and you don't really need a 600 with a 1.7.
To "flip" an image for composition, (Cropping maybe )is not needed.. It make absolutely no difference whatsoever. ( Except in a book using a central spread etc), but not on this site.
The angle, position retc is just right but the whole shot is spoilt by the lack of clarity. Good try though
John
Well done for putting a woodie up, very underrated bird I reckon! I would agree with much of what John has already said. Its nearly a great shot but just lacks a little sparkle. I think the comp is not quite there, loosing some of the expanse of water from the top, say an inch or so, improves it IMO. Also not sure how a photo can be full frame and cropped , Im guessing you have just lost a little off the left?
I agree it's nice to see a photo of one of these. It does appear to lack feather detail, presumably due to motion blur with the low shutter speed? Not sure if this can be helped by a little processing.
A nice capture of the behaviour & nice comp.
as already mentioned it is not sharp but may sharpen up a bit in ps.
Shooting at f4 instead of f7.1 would have given the shutter speed to capture the action or.
Some comments have been made about the sharpness of this image, well I’ve found out what’s the causes.
I’ve just upgraded to CS4, and up until now, I’ve done my USM just before saving for the web. When I used my previous settings for USM 100,2.0,0 the image broke up, showing a considerable amount of fractals, so I reduced it to 25,2.0,0 and it looked fine on my screen, calibrated, but not here.
So from now on, I’ll download my images onto the forum, view it, and make my changes I think appropriate.
Discussion
8 repliesTo "flip" an image for composition, (Cropping maybe )is not needed.. It make absolutely no difference whatsoever. ( Except in a book using a central spread etc), but not on this site.
The angle, position retc is just right but the whole shot is spoilt by the lack of clarity. Good try though
John
Hi Ray,
Well done for putting a woodie up, very underrated bird I reckon! I would agree with much of what John has already said. Its nearly a great shot but just lacks a little sparkle. I think the comp is not quite there, loosing some of the expanse of water from the top, say an inch or so, improves it IMO. Also not sure how a photo can be full frame and cropped
Lewis.
Good to see a woodie though. they are such handsome birds.
as already mentioned it is not sharp but may sharpen up a bit in ps.
Shooting at f4 instead of f7.1 would have given the shutter speed to capture the action or.
Lee
I’ve just upgraded to CS4, and up until now, I’ve done my USM just before saving for the web. When I used my previous settings for USM 100,2.0,0 the image broke up, showing a considerable amount of fractals, so I reduced it to 25,2.0,0 and it looked fine on my screen, calibrated, but not here.
So from now on, I’ll download my images onto the forum, view it, and make my changes I think appropriate.