Cormorants and Anhingas have to really work to get airborne. This guy had already traveled over a 100 feet and was only about five feet above the water.
Type of Critique Requested
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
This was a tough catch in that in the beginning of the takeoff, he was almost head on, which made tracking to the captured position, quite difficult. I knew because of the BG clutter, I had to go to a shallow DoF, though the sweet spot for that lens is much greater, but to so so would have required a higher ISO. even though I know the camera will handle higher ISO noise.
Technical Details
D500, 200-500 @500mm, f/5.6, 1/4000, ISO 640
ACR for 70% of the processing, some noise reduction with On1, A Levels adj for some needed contrast.
Seems like they have to run forever, don’t they? Wing position is nice and I like the water drops. Looks a tad soft in the largest view - did you pan with the bird as you were shooting? That little bit of extra tracking movement can help with things by keeping up with the bird more than just holding static. If that makes sense. The bg is what it is and I like the wedge shape the big branch makes - it mimics the bird and makes me think of forward momentum. You could give this a horizontal flip so the bird is flying left to right - most folks read that way here and can make an image more relatable.
Thanks, Kristen. Soft comes from 5.6 as opposed to f/8 which is the sweet spot for this lens and I was really working to keep that eye focus intact. I was panning but having to move from a near head-on to a side stance likely softened him up a tad more. As to flipping the image horizontally…I have limits as to how far I will go to enhance a shot, and generally, that’s outside my limit. Hey, I’m just an old film fuddy-duddy.
I can fully appreciate the challenges you were faced with while capturing this image and I think your choice of aperture was a good one considering the BG.
Personally the BG doesn’t bother me, sometimes the joy of capturing a difficult image like this far outweighs everything else, especially for the photographer, it’s too easy to say that it should have been done different if you’re not the one doing the shooting.
The Cormorant looks pretty sharp to me.
I like the theme of this, “Gaining Altitude”, and the story of it taking off adds to it for me.
Maybe the Cormorant just ate a large fish and is too heavy to adhere to the “Takeoff Weight Limits”, it can apply to avian as well as aviation, right?
I guess I must be ambidextrous because I’m able to read it right to left as easily as I can left to right
I think you are being pretty modest, your career as a photography teacher is one to be proud of!
