Lesser Goldenback

[Arpan Saha]

English Name - Lesser Goldenback (female)
Bengali Name - Sonali kaththokra
Scientific Name - Dinopium benghalense
Size - 26-29 cm
[Nikon D5100 + Sigma 150-500]
Location - Dumdum, Kolkata
Shot Taken on - Mar, 13

[Arpan Saha]

iso 640, f8, aperture priority, basic editing, cropped...

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Nice wing spread pose, but the image is very soft even with a high aperture. What was the shutter speed ?

Thanks for sharing

Rajan

[Jim Manjooran]

this is a unique pic...never seen a flame back spread wings like this..!!...good timing...
A collectible pic..!!....
Rajan raises a good point..maybe it is soft.. because of some noise reduction...can a slow shutter speed create a softness?...i am under the impression..that a slow shutter speed would create blurrish look rather than a soft...?..what do you say Rajan?

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Oh absolutely Jim, a slow shutter speed would normally blur the moving parts. However, a slow shutter with an improper support is also capable of producing soft images. Other factors causing soft images are.

(1) A Big Crop (2) Noise Reduction - especially with tools like Neat Image (3) Focus issues on the lens or (4) Large file size being uploaded.

regards
Rajan

[Arpan Saha]

shutter speed - 1/750

the subject was very far, so as mentioned, cropped... also, most of the time my photos face the criticism that it is over-sharpened, so just some basic editing done...also handheld at morning soft light...

so, in total, the image is the result of my poor photography skills...

Thank you Jim & Rajan for the review...

[Jim Manjooran]

Arpan....according to me...photography skill is to do with capturing the moment...not so much on the processing of the picture........this according to me is the essence of photography...of course...processing is a bonus and most of us are still in the learning curve here.....
But..for the fact..that you manage to capture a rather unique picture of the Flameback..to my mind..you get 100 out of 100..!!!...

[Rajan Kanagasabai]

Agree with Jim. Photography Skill is a relative term and can vary. However, a good photograph is one which gets everyone's attention, and makes one go Wow !!.

Like Jim said, you (Arpan) do manage some amazing timings and pictures that are not commonplace (like for example, very few people would have timed the wing spread on the flame back), which means the skills are very much present. It is all about honing them and the only way to do that is to continuously learn on the field and from healthy discussions on the forum.

As a thumb rule, Cropping, Sharpening and Noise reduction tools usually degrade a good image by a large extent.

Years ago, when i was learning on this forum, Sabyasachi, Bhibav, Apna and Mrudul would always tell me to stop bothering about the proximity of the image and concentrate on the composition, keeping the camera steady while shooting and work on the lighting.

Incidentally, it was the same Sigma 150-500 that i was grappling with and if you see some of my old pictures in the forum they are all extremely soft.

So, long story short, don't just bother about the skills. They will always come by practice. Try to keep the camera steady (maybe a good beanbag on a sturdy tripod) and you will see a big change in the pictures.

Get Shutter happy and keep them coming. . .

regards
Rajan

[Arpan Saha]

thank you very much jim & rajan for you valuable reviews...read it fully, going to follow those steps to increase my skills...