Views on Marsh Harrier photo please

[KentYeti]

I think it's an OK image but no more.

Nikon D80 plus 300mm f4 lens. 1/2500 sec, f4.5, 320 iso.

I've done very little with Photoshop. A small amount of sharpening. The very sharp leading edge of the wings came out of the camera.

On reflection I think I'd have done better with as close to 100 iso as I could have got with 1/1600th second?

The bird is centre of the image, and cropped a fair bit, but not overly.

Any views on the image plus camera settings gratefully received.

Cheers,

Bryan

[slimrbp]

Nice catch!

Were you shooting jpeg?

If so did you have in camera sharpening on? I think the super sharp leading edge of the wing makes it look over sharpenened and their seems to be a sort of halo around the beak? Although I think I have seen that effect when you have a high contrast situation like this.

Not that easy to get a BIF in focus and the exposure looks good, with regards to camera settings I personally would have stopped down rather than dropped the ISO perhaps to f5.6 (not sure if your lens has a sweet spot but often 1 stop off from max aperture is good) and then perhaps dropeed the ISO if possible to get a shutter speed of around 1/1000s.

[KentYeti]

Thanks Richard. I was shooting in RAW. But have a jpeg as well which I may look at now.

The halo around the beak is, I think, some nesting material it was carrying. The other guy I was with commented on it at the time.

I don't have "in camera" sharpening on. So the leading edge sharpness must be due to the contrast with the bright blue sky behind.

I'll try cutting back on shutter speed next time, (hopefully very soon!).

[slimrbp]

The main reason for asking about RAW/jpeg is if it was jpeg there may have been some in camera processing to consider.

Originally Posted by KentYeti

The halo around the beak is, I think, some nesting material it was carrying. The other guy I was with commented on it at the time.

that's the problem with having to look at images on the web can't always see the details!

Originally Posted by KentYeti

I don't have "in camera" sharpening on. So the leading edge sharpness must be due to the contrast with the bright blue sky behind.

Agreed, you can never win sometimes . Also I find when you make the image smaller for web viewing it can over emphasise the contrast.

[nigel_b]

What do you see as wrong with it?

I've the same lens (usually with 1.4xTC) on a D200 and don't bother with 100 any more, just go straight to 400 for faster shutter speed.

There's enough other variables to worry about the ISO is the last one I optimise. I like to stop the lens down to get a bigger depth of field. Don't get me wrong the 300mm + TC is pin sharp wide open, it's just that the depth of field is tiny.

Looking at the triangle ISO, Shutter speed, aperture I tend to set the aperture to give me the DoF I want, and then whatever ISO is required to give fast enough shutter speed, if that makes sense.

[KentYeti]

Originally Posted by nigel_b

What do you see as wrong with it?.........

(edited)

.

Just seems to be lacking something. Can't totally put my finger on it.

It's possibly lack of sharp detail under the bird?

Discussed this with someone I met whilst birding a few days ago. He pointed out that feathers are soft and don't do sharp! Not like the steam locos I've photographed for the last 50 years.

It could be I've just got to adjust to this new hobby of mine.

One thing's certain. I'll be pestering people here for comments and critique pretty often for a while. I hope that doesn't bug anyone. But I won't be happy until I'm getting results I am fully happy with. Got a heron in flight shot to put up shortly for the treatment here.

Cheers,

Bryan

[faz]

Hi kentyeti

I’m no photographer but the picture looks like its been pasted on to a blue background

[kaiser]

Originally Posted by faz

Hi kentyeti

I’m no photographer but the picture looks like its been pasted on to a blue background

i agree and equally im very new to the hobby with VERY limited knowledge, its a pic id be very proud of but does look very odd for some reason!

well done though i hope i can get similar results soon

[KentYeti]

I'm working through all the images I've taken since I started on 24th Feb. Even though only the "best" were put onto my PC, I'm still deleting around 75% of those.

I'm not up to that Harrier photo yet with my detailed work, but I have glanced ahead and it was just one of a whole sequence. I suspect one of the others will be better and be the one I keep.

[Stephen Raff]

Im not sure how but would it be possible to see the original, uncropped and without processing. No worries if not.

Its a nice capture though but yes for whatever reason it is looking cut and pasted.

Stephen