A few birds

[John 2]

They are all excellent images and it's silly to say one is better than the other. But .......... that last image (Common Tern)! Well, it is just straight out of the top drawer. Focus, Composition (okay the bird helped), Exposure, Lighting, Colour - all just on the nail.

I agree on all points. Nice work.

[ajsmith]

These are great images... the sharpness, lighting, color and DOF ALL GREAT!

[bnnrcn]

Congratulations,they are excellent:-)

[rawill]

Robin...

The cormorant image is cropped just a wee bit (if at all) on the far right side.

The Blue Footed Boobie is cropped quite a bit, about 30-40%.

The other shots are not cropped.

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to comment and provide me with some great feedback!

Well then, my next comment is simple.

For so little crop, that is simply spectacular.
Must have taken hours of practice on BIF to get to be as clear as this, wingspans so outstretched etc.

And, given so little crop, you can back the zoom off a little, then you will also be able to crop in a way that lets the bird "fly into the space". Like I try to do with car racing.

However, I guess like everything it is all compromise, and you know what you are aiming for in each shot, filling the frame with a BIF must be a great thrill.

[FrankMi]

Frank... It was sunrise and a dark scene for a dark bird. SS 1/2000 ISO 2000! (auto iso because all my test shot readings were high and I couldn't figure it out) F8 Exp. Compensation +.67... How could I have managed better separation while photographing the scene? Through better exposure with a slower shutter speed but these cormorants move fast? How can I achieve better separation in post processing? I've seen comments on others photos about improving separation but I'm not quite sure I'm understanding this.

Hi Christina, under the circumstances of available light and speed of the Cormorant, there may not be much you could do other than try to photograph it with a different background.

Post processing might not provide much better latitude. A fast moving dark grey object against a dark grey background is a tough one to improve separation on. To get better separation in post processing, we typically try to get difference between the subject and the background's sharpness, contrast, brightness, color, or vibrancy. Sometimes it is possible to use combinations of these things.

When we look at sharpness, for this image it doesn't look like you could increase the Cormorant's sharpness by very much and the background is already blurred by DoF and motion so there is very little we could typically gain there.

The Cormorant has a very light bill and very dark feathers. Likewise the background has a very light sea and very dark rocks so again there is not much can be done to set them apart contrast wise.

You wouldn't want to change the Cormorant's brightness, color, or vibrancy and you are not likely to be able to change the sea or rocks brightness, color, or vibrancy by very much and have them still look realistic.

The last resort option would be to change the background to something more like what you have as a background behind the other images but this has two issues. First, it won't be the original scene and that may not be acceptable and second, owing to the shooting conditions (at least in the posted image, the original may be better), the Cormorant is both a bit noisy and not in real sharp focus. Both of these conditions would become more noticeable against a lighter, higher contrast background.

I'm not saying to forget post processing altogether as I know that image can be improved, but rather the amount of improvement may be disappointingly less than you would hope for.

Others with more skill than I have may be able to offer better solutions.

By the way, I do like your position of the Cormorant left of where you would normally expect it to be in the frame as it accentuates the sense of speed at which it is flying. Considering that aspect for a moment, one thing you could add to the background would be a Motion Blur with a 0° angle and an experiment as to the number of pixels for the blur length. I might start experimenting in the 5-8 pixel range and see if you can give a faster sense of speed to the Cormorant that looks appropriate for the conditions. That, and selective sharpening of the Cormorant could help the separation just enough to be effective.

I hope this provides at least a partial answer to your question.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Nandakumar, John, Ali, Binnur and Robin for taking the time to comment. Very encouraging and truly appreciated.

Robin, one of my lens is 28-200 and the other is fixed at 300 mm, so one day I am going to purchase a zoom lens to cover the in between. When I use the 300 mm I end up clipping a lot of birds.

Frank, thank you so much for the detailed explanation. It helps my understanding of the scene immensely and it will help me be more prepared next time around. I'm not real keen on post processing, or changing scenes (unless I had enough skills to create art out of an image, perhaps a few years from now (and I do have a few of the cormorant flying against a blue sky - far easier! ) I will be printing your reply for a reference, and I just might try that blur thing to see what it is and learn about it. Thanks a billion! I always learn something from you!

[NorthernFocus]

Nice set of images, Christina. The booby is everything one could hope for. On that particular species, catching it in that position which is demonstrative of its common name is perfect. I also like that particular perspective on the tern because they are often seen that way. Good job.

I bet it was nice shooting in all that light and not having to force high ISO, pull colors back in PP, etc.

[Brownbear]

Thanks Dan... Yes, I am missing the light, and low isos, and I didn't know that one was supposed to pull colours back with high isos, so that is good to know. Booby.. Thanks for correcting my spelling. I should've looked it up

Nice set of images, Christina. The booby is everything one could hope for. On that particular species, catching it in that position which is demonstrative of its common name is perfect. I also like that particular perspective on the tern because they are often seen that way. Good job.

I bet it was nice shooting in all that light and not having to force high ISO, pull colors back in PP, etc.

[NorthernFocus]

I have no idea if booby is correct so you better check

Typically those of us who need the high ISO cameras are so happy to be able to work in low light, that we rarely mention/notice the loss of dynamic range and color rendition. One reason it is so hard to get high ISO shots to look "right" is due to that. If you look at the test curves on DxO Mark they test at various ISO settings and plot performance curves for noise, dynamic range, and color.