Yellowlegs + REPOST

Gallery: AvianPosted April 13, 201191 views14 comments

A Greater Yellowlegs from Tigertail Beach, Marco Island, FL. On this trip I worked exclusively in manual mode, which was a great advantage with the large white birds like the White Ibis in my previous post. It also helped when working on shorebirds with small bright white patches. However, sometimes I would forget to lower my ISO as the light got brighter, instead continuing to boost shutter speed. That's why this shot has an ISO of 640, when I probably should have been down to 400 by this point. On this shot it didn't hurt me, though I did do NR on the bg. But it's something I'll try to do a better job of remembering in the future.

In addition to the NR, I cloned two very small areas: a white spot behind the bird, and a very small portion of the reflection of the bill which was at the bottom of the frame.

I appreciate your comments and critiques. Please view the larger version if possible.

Canon 7D, 500mm + 1.4x TC, monopod, kneeling in the water.

1/2000, f/8, ISO 640

Crop to 62% of original (11.1 of 18MP)

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Ron Bielefeld on April 13, 2011 at 8:36 PM

Sweet shot Brian. I like the way you are thinking about your exposures and your use of manual exposure. Shows good understanding of light and exposure. Love the low angle, detail, sharpness, pose, and the reflection of the legs adds a lot to the image IMO. I love little things like that as they add interest to an already good image. Very well done.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 360 Posts, 7132 Comments

Comment posted by Ken Archer on April 13, 2011 at 9:14 PM

Sweet Light on this Beauty Brian

Excellent detail and that lifted foot is nice bonus. For me manual spot meter settings is the only reliable way I can make consistently good exposures,

Ken Archer

Registered on October 28, 2004, 222 Posts, 6683 Comments

Comment posted by S Govindarajan on April 13, 2011 at 9:28 PM

I think the image has come out perfectly exposed in some great light, Brian. As with the ibis, you got a great angle and a classic pose. The exposed shoots in the water and raised foot both add interest to this image. I would try to crop it a bit more loosely and perhaps get more of the reflection into the image. But that's just a suggestion and the image is very good as it stands too.

Registered on April 19, 2008, 115 Posts, 1921 Comments

Comment posted by Ashley Vincent on April 13, 2011 at 9:45 PM

Lovely shot Brian :^) Nothing of the 640 ISO level seems to show in this image. As you probably know, we use the same equipment, and the 7D, while being a pretty excellent camera in every other respect, doesn't usually handle noise at setting above 400 as well as this. Well done :^)

Registered on March 1, 2011, 154 Posts, 2083 Comments

Comment posted by Sharon Hallowell on April 13, 2011 at 10:17 PM

A beautiful shot of this yellowlegs. Nice job on the noise reduction and I like the pose. Sharon

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

Comment posted by Rick Cloran on April 13, 2011 at 11:08 PM

This may be your best yet from that FL trip. I love everything about it.

Registered on April 6, 2004, 119 Posts, 1989 Comments

Comment posted by Murali Santhanam on April 14, 2011 at 3:46 AM

Nice Shot. We call these Sandpipers here in India.

Registered on July 31, 2008, 43 Posts, 331 Comments

Comment posted by Craig Strand on April 14, 2011 at 6:06 AM

Brian... congratulations on this fine capture. Probably the best greater yellowlegs image I can recall seeing. Your exposure settings and composition are right on and I really like the raised leg and DOF choice.

Registered on March 30, 2008, 416 Posts, 2885 Comments

Comment posted by Mia McPherson on April 14, 2011 at 11:31 AM

Brian,

I am so tickled that you had such a great time in Florida and that you were able to photograph so many birds.

I love the pose you caught this yellowlegs in, with light in the eye, the raised foot and the bird's relaxed attitude about your presence. Great low angle, light, details, reflection and sharpness. Your composition works very well for my tastes.

I do notice some colors bleeding from the bird into the background all around the bird. That is most likely caused by something in the post processing. I would work on resolving that because it is the only issue I can see with your image and resoving that will give your image more impact than it already has. I'd love to see a repost of this file after removing the color bleed.

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

Comment posted by Charlie VanTassel on April 14, 2011 at 12:17 PM

Very nice, Brian. I agree with Mia... but it looks to me like a sharpening halo. A minor fix. The perfect setting for this bird.

Registered on October 18, 2006, 644 Posts, 4801 Comments

Comment posted by Wayne Willison on April 14, 2011 at 6:17 PM

Well worth wet knees. I think the high iso and ss did a lot in getting this with such fine detail. A real beaut.

Registered on April 10, 2009, 292 Posts, 3967 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Balke on April 14, 2011 at 9:40 PM

Beautiful, Brian. The pose and viewing angle are really outstanding. I even see a little catchlight in the eye. I didn't even notice the thin halo until I read Mia's comment.

Registered on June 18, 2009, 229 Posts, 2915 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Gatlin on April 14, 2011 at 10:43 PM

thanks for the comments and for catching the processing artifact. I went back and found that it was a result of the noise reduction layer, even though I had masked the bird. I tried tinkering with the mask and refining the edge, to no avail. Very strange. So I went back to the original and started over and for some reason that I don't understand, this time I think it came out fine.

I'm attaching a repost, cropped in on the bird to show it and any possible artifact as large as possible (shown here it is at about 90% of the size in the 1200 pixel version).

Registered on March 21, 2009, 202 Posts, 4187 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Dudley on April 16, 2011 at 9:55 AM

A fine image Brian. I like the pose, light and the effect of DOF on the water and emergents. I sometimes get this same color bleeding when I use NR and other times it doesn't happen. I don't understand it either.

Registered on March 30, 2007, 437 Posts, 10915 Comments