It was an overcast morning. I wanted to catch any birds in flight that I could, and came across this guy flitting up into the air to catch insects and then back to its tree limb. They’re fast, but this hovering moment allowed me to catch it.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I like to capture wing blur in my birds in flight images which is why I used a slower shutter speed. I am glad to have caught the blur here. What I like most however is the pose, almost heroic.
The image has noise, and is a little soft. I added a slight Orton effect, but decided against Topaz DeNoise because the grain adds almost a pencil drawing effect that is sort of pleasing. That’s my rationalization/excuse, but maybe it doesn’t look good to you?
Technical Details
Nikon D500 with 70-200 lens, at 200mm (350mm equivalent), f/8, 1/400 sec, ISO 100.
I really brightened the dull gray sky to give this a high-key look too.
Cue a song: “I know a red hero who swallowed a fly…”. That’s a super wing position you caught, Mark.And this shot cries out to be centered, as it is. I agree with your rationalization of the softness. I might be tempted to clone out the small bluish line down its back, but that’s a quibble, and it can be seen as part of the motion blur. A very interesting, different sort of bird shot.
A very interesting pose and composition. The image seems to lack sufficient contrast. When you push the development for high key, contrast can suffer. Are you sure that the ISO was 100? At 100, there should be little to no noise if your initial exposure was good to begin with. I like the motion blur and the square comp works for this one…Jim
Thanks everyone for your kind feedback! @Mike_Friel, Ha ha! Are you referring to that childhood song “I don’t why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she’ll die”? If not, which song? I hadn’t noticed that blue line. I think it is an artifact from raising the luminence in the sky so much, combined with some of the motion blur. In Lightroom I put the Blue slider to zero Saturation and re-posted the original. I think it helps a bit, but it’s hard to tell. @Vanessa_Hill - I like trying to catch our flighty friends with wing blur! Thanks. @Jim_Zablotny , I re-checked and yes ISO 100. This is a massive crop, maybe just 5 or 10 percent of the original size, so I think the noise is the low lighting combined with that huge crop. I know what you mean about the contrast. I’ve posted an alternative with darkened wings. I like them both, but the original less contrasty one seems more ethereal and I kind of like that.
This is a beautiful shot of this bird. I wish we had them in our area. The pose is fantastic and I like the wing blur. When I first opened this up, I was attracted to the second photo with more contrast (probably just because it had more contrast), but enlarging them and looking closer, I like the first one better. It has a softer look to it that I like. Very well done.
