Spring is some of the busiest seasons here for me and I am behind in my processing (I always am!). Here is one from April at one of my favorite local pond. Avocets in their breeding plumage are hands down my favorite wading bird of all.
D500, 500mm, f/4.5, 1/400, ISO 7200. This is slightly after sunrise but before the sun clears the hill behind me. Sometimes I am amazed what this $1,500 camera can do at high ISO.
All feedbacks are most welcome.
@adhikalie
Another lovely portrait of this beautiful bird, Adhika. The colors and detail are spot on. The back ground is smooth and makes him stand out. With him picking up his foot like he is walking, to me it feels a bit tight on the right side, (it doesn’t help that he has a long beak). You are right, at ISO 7200, this is really not noisy.
Superb color, detail, light, depth of field, and background. Impressive for iso-7200. Yes, I am pretty amazed at some of the high iso- images from the D 500, especially when paired with the 500 mm F5 .6 PF. Are you using DxO photolab and Topaz AI clear?
@Shirley_Freeman and @David_Schoen, thanks!
It does feel a little bit tight on the right and I was a little hesitant about it. Unfortunately, I don’t have a horizontal frame of this. But let me see what I can do with canvas extension.
David, I use Lightroom for RAW conversion and then processed further in Photoshop. My noise reduction workflow is a little bit of a mess. It’s usually a combination of everything: ACR NR, Topaz AI Denoise (it seems to have replaced the AI Clear for me), and Nik Define. I combined two or more of these algorithms with layer masks. I often find the Topaz AI DeNoise to work pretty well for most backgrounds but it often destroys fine feather details and if you have shrubs or rocks or whatnot in the foreground, it will try to oversharpen it. Layer masks come in handy in those situations. In this case, a straight through AI DeNoise for the BG and then masked out partially on the bird.
They are an extremely elegant looking bird, Adhika, and you portrayed this one extremely well. I love the light in this image and the pose. The water is just plain gorgeous. I think a touch more room on both sides might be nice (maybe a 4x5 aspect ratio), but it’s a superb image as posted.
Lovely image Adhika. The noise control at that ISO is terrific. Maybe a little tight on the sides but still a very pleasing image. Very nice pose and background.
Classically wonderful. For me it’s the color palate and position of the bird. Nothing here to distract or misinterpret, the uncommon victory of making any nature image that contains only one thing.
TY for post
Adhika
Really lovely portrait. I love the darker background . It sets the bird off nicely.
