Kestrel REPOSTED

Gallery: AvianPosted January 2, 2010172 views4 comments

This one was hard to track down in the cold. I only got it by chance and am really glad to have seen it hunt. However, it is not as sharp as any of the others I have seen here. Can you give me some pointers on what I am doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

D200, af300 (f4) at F8 with a 2x teleconverter
1/1000 Iso 400
Hand balanced on the car window - used mittens due to no bean bag - car was off.

Did pump up the saturation and contrast a little in lightroom. Thanks for all the input - guess I will try not to use the 2x that often.

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Luke Ormand on January 2, 2010 at 7:05 PM

Congrats on getting this bird on a more natural looking post. I like the positioning of the bird in the frame. I got a photo of one the other day perched on a tree branch which was great, but the lighting wasn't so wonderful and it didn't come out looking as sharp as things I've seen on here. Which brings me to offering advice.

The biggest issue is the use of the 2x tele that will affect sharpness, especially when paired with a f/4 and not a faster f/2.8 I assume since the light was overcast you had to manually focus this. You don't indicate what the ISO was, but with a SS of 1/1000 I'm going to guess it was relatively high (especially for the D200) and you also don't indicate how much of the photo you have cropped off. As soon as you start cropping the quality is further degraded.

- Luke

Registered on February 4, 2009, 1093 Posts, 7035 Comments

Comment posted by Angela McCain on January 2, 2010 at 11:21 PM

Unusual to see this bird in your area in Winter isn't it? Nikon's 2x teleconverter isn't known for it's sharpness, no matter which lens it is paired with. The 1.7x is much better and doesn't lose much distance compared with the 2x.. The lens also does not have image stabilization. You also don't comment on what you did in post processing to try and increase the sharpness.

Registered on April 19, 2009, 367 Posts, 3589 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on January 3, 2010 at 7:32 AM

Lindy,

I like the setting, the comp, the placement of the bird in the frame and how nicely the kestrel stands out from the sky.

I really can not make a thorough critique at the size you posted, this is only 600 pixels on the long side. It would be valuable to have this posted at 720 pixels on the long side for small version, but more importantly posting the 1200 pixel optional larger version would help for us to see the critical sharpness or lack thereof.

Luke and Angela have addressed valid points about crop size, ISO, the 2x converter, lack of VR and not knowing what was done post processing to this image. I think we need to see a larger image and have more information.

Registered on June 25, 2007, 491 Posts, 12566 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on January 3, 2010 at 12:20 PM

Can't help with the techs you have posted, but I do think the image looks flat. I'm thinking a boost in contrast and saturation would help a bit. It is a lovely scene and I think it's worth working on this one. It does appear sharp around the tail feathers and the top of the post. Sharon

Registered on November 1, 2003, 392 Posts, 4810 Comments