Sibling Rivalry

[ArthurDent]

St. Augustine, Florida is a good place to go looking for birds to shoot. They nest there over the winter and raise their chicks up so that by the late spring they are ready to head north. This shot was taken in mid-April using a friend's Sigma 800mm f/5.6 lens. Exposure was 1/640 sec. at f/8. The camera body was a D7000. One reason I like this image is because of the strong diagonal elements established by the birds' beaks.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

White plumage, strong sunlight, and overexposure don't mix well.

[ArthurDent]

White plumage, strong sunlight, and overexposure don't mix well.

Thank you for your comment. Using either Capture NX-D or View NX-i, is there a way to determine the number of blown out pixels?

[Akira]

Hi, Arthur, I think you captured a very exciting and interesting moment.

That said, I would crop the image so that the viewer can concentrate on the battle and the interesting geometry without losing the environmental info completely.

Here's my humble suggestion.  Hope you wouldn't mind...

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Thank you for your comment. Using either Capture NX-D or View NX-i, is there a way to determine the number of blown out pixels?

Why not upload the NEF til Dropbox and let people try what they can correct?

[Randy Stout]

Arthur:

I like the interaction, well titled.  Besides the exposure and cluttered back ground issues mentioned, I don't find the sharpness to be very good.  Not easy to get three birds in same plane of focus with that focal length combination, but even the far right bird just isn't very sharp.

Were you using a tripod?

Randy

[ArthurDent]

Hi, Arthur, I think you captured a very exciting and interesting moment.

That said, I would crop the image so that the viewer can concentrate on the battle and the interesting geometry without losing the environmental info completely.

Here's my humble suggestion.  Hope you wouldn't mind...

Hi Akira- Thank you for your cropping suggestion. Your crop is definitely far superior to the crop I applied and markedly improves the image. I'll be looking more closely at my crops in the future. I appreciate your input, it was very helpful.
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[ArthurDent]

Arthur:

I like the interaction, well titled.  Besides the exposure and cluttered back ground issues mentioned, I don't find the sharpness to be very good.  Not easy to get three birds in same plane of focus with that focal length combination, but even the far right bird just isn't very sharp.

Were you using a tripod?

Randy

Yes, my friend has a very nice tripod and I was using it for the whole shoot. It may be a matter of shooting technique. That was my first time using such a long lens. Perhaps there are tricks to using it to get sharp images? After reading your post I'm wondering whether perhaps I should have shot using the mup setting to reduce vibration? if you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate your jotting them down. Thanks for your comment.
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[elsa hoffmann]

It must have been great to see this playful fighting. I am afraid I don't know what these birds are?
Bjørn is right that the conditions were really not good. The left eye being out of focus is distracting - and the right eye has no light in it - which makes usually for a better image. What is also distracting to me- is the messy background. Now I know none of this is your fault - but in nature you often sit with things you photograph - but really is more of a reminder of what you saw - how beautiful it was. A memory that is. We can not control nature - therefor we need to do the best we can to get the most out of it. Just remember - the most beautiful scene doesn't always translate into a great photo.

[ArthurDent]

It must have been great to see this playful fighting. I am afraid I don't know what these birds are?
Bjørn is right that the conditions were really not good. The left eye being out of focus is distracting - and the right eye has no light in it - which makes usually for a better image. What is also distracting to me- is the messy background. Now I know none of this is your fault - but in nature you often sit with things you photograph - but really is more of a reminder of what you saw - how beautiful it was. A memory that is. We can not control nature - therefor we need to do the best we can to get the most out of it. Just remember - the most beautiful scene doesn't always translate into a great photo.

They are great egrets. I've taken another run at it, which may be a little better, but there are still issues with the image. The left eye does look out of focus, but I don't think it really is. The birds don't have eyelids, they have a clear nictitating membrane which performs the same function as an eyelid. I believe what we are seeing is that membrane closed. You are right about the chick's eye having no highlights. The next time I shoot I'll be able to use my new Better Beamer to insert some highlights, so hopefully will not have that problem again. Thanks for your kind comments, very soothing for a person who is always seeking photographic perfection.

[Randy Stout]

Arthur:

Your repost has made some real improvements in the things that you can control after the fact.  The exposure of the whites is much better controlled.  The original had many whites above 250, and wasn't showing much detail in them. Repost closer to 210, and more detail. Perhaps just somewhere between the two exposures would be ideal.  You don't want the whites looking too gray.  I generally shoot for my whites on birds in the 230 range max, occ. a bit higher, but always watching for too much loss of feather detail.  Sharpening is better too in the repost.  Agree about the nictitating membrane on the bird on the left.  Can be a pesky issue for sure, so a short burst during scenes will sometime net an image with the membrane open.

It isn't just the membrane that gives the sense of that bird being blurry however.

Shooting at an effective focal length of 1200mm with this combo does indeed take a lot of consideration for your tech.  Mirror lockup for fast action isn't an option.  You def. want to get your shutter speed up if you have enough light.  Better to be sharp and with a bit of noise from higher ISO than blurry from subject or camera motion.

What type of head do you have on your tripod?  A gimbal head is usually the best choice for such a big rig.

Keep working it, it just takes a lot of practice.  A lot of folks can't even find the subject in the viewfinder with that much mag.

Cheers

Randy

[ArthurDent]

Arthur:

Your repost has made some real improvements in the things that you can control after the fact.  The exposure of the whites is much better controlled.  The original had many whites above 250, and wasn't showing much detail in them. Repost closer to 210, and more detail. Perhaps just somewhere between the two exposures would be ideal.  You don't want the whites looking too gray.  I generally shoot for my whites on birds in the 230 range max, occ. a bit higher, but always watching for too much loss of feather detail.  Sharpening is better too in the repost.  Agree about the nictitating membrane on the bird on the left.  Can be a pesky issue for sure, so a short burst during scenes will sometime net an image with the membrane open.

It isn't just the membrane that gives the sense of that bird being blurry however.

Shooting at an effective focal length of 1200mm with this combo does indeed take a lot of consideration for your tech.  Mirror lockup for fast action isn't an option.  You def. want to get your shutter speed up if you have enough light.  Better to be sharp and with a bit of noise from higher ISO than blurry from subject or camera motion.

What type of head do you have on your tripod?  A gimbal head is usually the best choice for such a big rig.

Keep working it, it just takes a lot of practice.  A lot of folks can't even find the subject in the viewfinder with that much mag.

Cheers

Randy

Randy, thank you for your very informative post. I thought I'd be okay at 1/640 for birds on the nest, but obviously that was not the case. My thought was to keep ISO down  by going with the slowest reasonable shutter speed, as I've had problems with high ISO images using my (recently replaced) D7000 body.

Please explain how you were able to determine the original white value of 250 and current value of 210? I've been adjusting by eye, but I'd really like to be able to put a number to it. You are also correct about the sharpening, I moved it from 6 to 8. Do you have a preferred sharpness setting, or is there a way to determine the optimum amount? I've just been doing it by eye.

I just purchased a D500 body, so hopefully that will help me to deal with the problem of nictitating membranes. The lens and tripod belong to a friend. I'm not real familiar with the setup for long lenses, but I believe he said it had a Wimberley style head. It was a gimbaled arrangement. Thanks again for your response, very helpful.
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[Randy Stout]

Arthur:

I normally get my exposure values off of the histogram function in PS or LR, but for quick review of images, there is a widget called the Digital Color meter on Macs that gives a quick check.  very handy.

D500 is an outstanding camera, should work well.

What lens are you going to use on it?  The 200-500 from Nikon is a great option for reasonable cost birding, esp. on  a crop body like the D500.  I use a 150-600 Sigma sport for my hand held shots, and a 600 for my tripod work.  Florida really makes it easier to get by without truly big glass, as you can get much closer to birds than us northerners, where a great egret will fly away if you are within 100 yards (if you are lucky)

Cheers

Randy

[ArthurDent]

Arthur:

I normally get my exposure values off of the histogram function in PS or LR, but for quick review of images, there is a widget called the Digital Color meter on Macs that gives a quick check.  very handy.

D500 is an outstanding camera, should work well.

What lens are you going to use on it?  The 200-500 from Nikon is a great option for reasonable cost birding, esp. on  a crop body like the D500.  I use a 150-600 Sigma sport for my hand held shots, and a 600 for my tripod work.  Florida really makes it easier to get by without truly big glass, as you can get much closer to birds than us northerners, where a great egret will fly away if you are within 100 yards (if you are lucky)

Cheers

Randy

Thank you for your quick reply. I think I'm going to get lightroom. I changed computers awhile ago and lost access to my previous photo software. I'm currently using my Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 lens, sometimes with a 1.7x teleconverter, but I've definitely got my eye on the 200-500 which seems to me to be a terrific deal and would round out my lens suite very nicely. I'd have everything from 18mm  to 750 mm covered. 12-24mm f/4, 35-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and (prospective) 200-500mm. I will need a new backpack.