Superman

[Lava Lamp]

This reminded me of Superman. What do you think? How you would improve it? Taken today with D70 and Tokina 400mm plus Tamron 1.4x @ ISO 1600 f/11 and 1/1000 or thereabouts. Run through NeatImage and cropped slightly. Some levels and sharpness.

[Steph_B]

Hi LavaLamp,

This is a very good shot... and sharp too. The exposition and the white balance are perfect... The only flaw that I can see here is the fact that the neck and BG wing are merging slightly. But otherwise... congrats!

I am definitely looking forward to a digital body for bird photography. I have tried bird photography in the past, but I found the price of film to be a strong deterrent. I am also waiting to have the proper tele. for the job. A F4.5 just do not cut it!

Once again: congrats!

Steph.

[Tuna]

Very nice capture. Well cropped and presented.

That 400mm Tokina with 1.4x converter did a great job. This photo is pretty sharp. I guess your effective focal length, with the D70 adding another 1.5x or so, was around 840mm! Pretty impressive to hold this steady even at 1/1000.

Nice job.

Tuna

[Elysian]

It's a really nice shot, but the bird looks too plastic in some areas, too 'cotton'(?) like in other areas and I'm pretty sure that this is a result of using NeatImage on the complete image, instead of only targeting the background and by using too much noise reduction (reduce amount in Y-channel).

[gahspidy]

Great shot, Lavalamp.
Yes with that set up you are getting a huge zoom factor and I would guess that anything less than a 1/1000 shutter speed on that set up handholding woiuld not cut it. I have read in a National Geographic Photo Field guide that the rule of thumb for handholding a shot is to have a shutter speed equal to or more than the zoom. i.e. 70 mm 1/90 100mm 1/125 600mm 1/750.
This came out good and sharp, excellent point of view of the subject. A bit of light maybe shining on the birds eye and face area would have added, but really good as it is. I am noticing a hint of plastic look on the foremost wing surface, no doubt from NeatImage as Elysian pointed out. But it does not do much harm since the surface is smooth and white anyway. I usually find myself doing 2 light apps of NeatImage on grainy or noisy images. 1st a light application to the entire image, and a second application to selected noise areas of background.

[shesells]

A really nice catch. My first reaction was wow, I love how it fills the whole screen. After scrutinizing it I was wondering what the bulge was below his head and after reading the comment from Steph I realize that it's the neck... a bit distracting but not much, I don't think most people stare at photos like we do and look for things so no worries. I have to agree with the neat image overdo, but not much. Just work the original again and it always improves. Really, a very lovely shot and good lines of the body.
Kit