Racing Guillemot Racing and Reflection(s)

[Brownbear]

I'm still working on my Guillemots and I think I'm learning to manage my water backgrounds better... One wing is a little fluttery and the photo is a little crooked but if I straighten the photo I loose the splash of water on the top...


I would appreciate a critique on this photo so I can improve the next time I try photographing these black birds and I'm curious if others think the reflection of the reflection should be kept or not... (first time I've seen this)..

Manual SS 2500 F4 (needed more light but didn't want to over expose the white bits on the wing so I sacrificed DOF) iso 1250 Exp Bias +.67 Matrix metering




I'm also curious as to what type of metering others use for dark birds over water as spot metering on these birds blows the water, and as the birds are small that leaves too much water to decrease the exposure on.
Thank you.

[Digital]

Christina, nice capture.



Bruce

[Geoff F]

That is all you can do under these conditions, Christina. Guess a suitable exposure for the brightest areas; be they white flashes on the bird or water splashes. Then try to recover everything else during editing.

The pro bird photographers can instantly see what is needed, from previous experience. But a bit more hit or miss for the rest of us!

However, this time it has worked out OK.

[John 2]

I think Geoff has said it all Christina. You could perhaps crop some of the RHS but I'm not set on that. This is not an easy one to compose. Well caught.

[Brownbear]

Thank you, Bruce, Geoff and John... I will just keep working on it... Appreciated.

[Ken Curtis]

Hi Christina. It looks like the bird is not sharply in focus. I don't know much about shooting (with a camera) flying birds, but I think you could reduce the shutter speed down to 1000 to decrease the aperture size (increase the F-number) to increase the DOF. Or possibly, the autofocus wasn't keeping up with your panning. My two cents. Don't know if it helps or not.

[Brownbear]

Thank you for sharing. I'm fairly certain the head and the eye are in sharp focus as seen full size, but perhaps because the entire bird is not in sharp focus it detracts from the entire image but I will check again.

These particular birds fly really fast, so I think a SS of 1000 would be too, low.. I have managed a SS of 1600 when I'm on top of things but faster is better ...

Thank you, Ken. Yes, truly appreciated as it always helpful to receive a critique and think of different ways of trying to photograph these birds, which I'm a little obsessed with, which means I am not objective enough about my own photos...

Stay tuned... I likely just need another months practice.

Hi Christina. It looks like the bird is not sharply in focus. I don't know much about shooting (with a camera) flying birds, but I think you could reduce the shutter speed down to 1000 to decrease the aperture size (increase the F-number) to increase the DOF. Or possibly, the autofocus wasn't keeping up with your panning. My two cents. Don't know if it helps or not.