While touring a cypress swamp near Millwood Lake in southwestern Arkansas, I encountered this most accommodating Barred Owl. The biggest challenge was maintaining focus with a tripod mounted 600mm lens while gently drifting along in a boat. This image is virtually full-frame.
Posted by Randy Wilson on July 8, 2009 at 11:53 PM
Beautiful detail and sharpness and a clean and uncluttered background. The only thing I might try to improve is to see if I could pull just a touch more shadow detail out of the (bird's) left eye and the area around it.
Incredibly sharp and such a nice setting. Amazing that you were able to achieve this level of sharpness while shooting from a boat! Well done, Charles.
All other things considered, the eye shadow is definitely a negative but it was exacerbated in the downsizing process. The image does show improved detail when printed at 13x19 inches. Someone more proficient with Photoshop could probably eke out a bit more detail than I was able to.
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on July 9, 2009 at 10:54 AM
This is a beauty Charles. The nice even light and excellent technique really brought out the detail in this shot. I had the same thought about the left eye but I do need to remind myself from time to time about the limitations of web presentation.
If you had a spare 13 x 19 print laying around doing nothing I'd be happy to look at this much closer! Thanks for sharing. Show us some more!
Definitely a keeper! The faster shutter speed and reduced aperture helped make it a clear image even taken from a moving boat. I noticed the high ISO in your tech specs. Did you run any noise reduction on the image or is the NR that good in the D3X?
Manhandling a 600mm lens in a moving boat is quite an accomplishment. Getting such a great shot speaks well for your long-lens technique. Hats off to you.
Daniel, I'm not sure if I applied any noise reduction in my post-processing but, if I did, it was very minimal. In the open shade lighting under which this shot was taken, I thought the D3x handled the noise exceptionally well with the in camera noise reduction option turned off. Deep shade or very low light can be a horse of a different color though.
I'm a little late to comment, but this is a very nice shot. I'm sure this would really stand out nicely in a large print. This might be a good candidate to experiment with Tony Kuyper's luminosity masks. You could select the darkest tonalities to lighten the eyes just a little.
If you are not familiar with his tutorials, here is his website. I'm not sure how to make it a hyperlink, though. http://www.goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html
Larry, I'm still learning NX2. I've got the basics down but haven't really tackled some of the other options. Clearly, my post-processing skills need a lot more work in terms of finesse.
Charles, Nice shot for sure! I am most impressed you were able to maintain such a sharp focus with the lense/boat combo! I read what Brian said about the luminosity masks. I'm sure it would help also with the eyes for sure. I look forward to trying out the luminosty masks myself. Great shot
Discussion
16 repliesTechnical Info:
Date: 4/19/09, Time: 1:17:42 PM, Model: NIKON D3X, Raw Conversion: Capture NX 2.2.0, Lens (mm): 600 f4G VR, ISO: 800, Aperture: 7.1, Shutter: 1/160, Exp. Comp.: 0.0, Program: Manual, Focus Mode: AF-C, White Bal.: AUTO, ICC Profile: ProPhoto RGB (embedded), Quality: RAW
If you had a spare 13 x 19 print laying around doing nothing I'd be happy to look at this much closer!
A really good effort and an excellent result. I've been trying the boat as a shooting platform results haven't been in your class.
Manhandling a 600mm lens in a moving boat is quite an accomplishment. Getting such a great shot speaks well for your long-lens technique. Hats off to you.
If you are not familiar with his tutorials, here is his website. I'm not sure how to make it a hyperlink, though. http://www.goodlight.us/writing/tutorials.html
I think the eye could be made more prominent in NX2 without much trouble. Have you used it any?