Geese

[ajsmith]

I shot these photos a couple days ago. I was aiming for really sharp with the whole subject in focus, but not the foreground and background. I also wanted to keep the details in the white areas. Camera was handheld. The reason for the high iso's was that it was kind of dark, even at 1 in the afternoon. There was fog in the morning and had not completely burned off, created strange lighting.


#1 - This was taken under exposed and corrected in ACR.
f5.6, 1/1250, iso 400 lens Canon 55-250 @250mm



#2 - These pics filled most of the frame so wasn't much room for cropping. I thought this one looked better centered near the horizon, making the reflection symmetrical.
f5.6, 1/250, iso 400 @250mm




#3 - I raised the iso on this one. There was a lot of noise in the photo, but I was able to remove it in ACR. I know there are probably some PS plug ins that are better at removing the noise.
f5.6, 1/1000, iso 1600 @250mm

[chauncey]

Regarding your high ISO...part of that problem lies with your use of excessively high SS.
A swimming goose rarely needs over a SS of over 500. Additionally...you should be focusing on the head,
not the body. F/5.6 is fine for your goals. Try bring out detail in blacks.

[ajsmith]

Hi Chauncey,

Thanks for your comments and tips. I need to slow down and recheck my settings before shooting.

Ali

[Brownbear]

Hi Ali,

I think the 2nd image is very nice, beautifully composed and I adore the reflection of the goose, and more detail in the goose neck and head...

A slower shutter speed could be used, but I've often used a SS of 800-1000 on floating geese because often times they will dunk their heads in the water and come up shaking water droplets, etc that I can catch with a faster shutter speed. I don't think an iso of 400 is too high at all, and often needed even on sunny days.

For geese, I try and meter off of the brown part of the bird to see what my exposure looks like, and I always check my histogram for clipping and adjust as best as I can.

[ajsmith]

Hi Christina,

Thank you for your comments and tips. I will try the metering off of the brown part of the bird.

I love all your bird photos and look forward to seeing more.