Purple Heron Lift-off!

[Aditya Panda]

The photographer's biggest enemy in Chilika is its harsh light. I've been pondering whether or not to buy a CPL filter to try taming that light and got a good chance to experiment with one borrowed from a friend in my last visit. This was the result.

Pros and cons- beautifully saturates true colours, minimizes haze, but at the same time, slows down the lens' AF as well as shutter speed. So should I invest in one? Well, definitely for the wide-angle, but this experimentation only complicated my confusion regarding whether or not to use CPLs with teles!

Cheers,
Aditya

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Aditya,

I like the kind of vertical take off.

Is this a full frame image?

I would like to crop a bit from the bottom and little bit from the left. It would have been great to see the wings in upstroke. That way, the dark underside of the back wing would have been avoided.

A higher aperture would have been better to give greater depth of field. I know, f8 would have been good, but would have seriously challenged your sharpness.

You have clicked f4, 1/2000 sec. So f8 would have made it 1/500th second. It is possible.

The colours have come nice. I don't think there should be any confusion. CPL is not to be used all the time. It is to be used on specific situations.

I have bought a CPL for my 400f2.8 lens. It took me 6 months before I could get it. I had ordered it in Singapore and they got it from Japan. That will tell you how many people use CPL. It is an expense and not used all the time.

Let me set up a thread on the tips section on this topic.

[Rakesh Dhareshwar]

Have never visited Chilka, but this pic does not give any impression of harsh light ! A very attractive shot , IMHO . Make a big print and hang it on the wall .

[Mohan Raj]

Liftoff!!!

Good photo and I like the water drops falling down. It looks like the filter helped you here.

Aditya, TFS.