Sandhill Silhouettes

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DavidG

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Just got my 500mm F4 in this weekend and took it out yesterday for the first time to try and get some shots. Got out late but did manage to catch some Sandhills coming in at sundown and it just happened to work out good for some silhouettes.

I was already walking back to my truck and just happened to see them all start coming in to roost for the night so I threw the tripod down and started firing away.

I did not do much post processing other than hitting auto and a little de-noise. One I wanted to present with this as it is the first time I have shot a silhouette, any tips/tricks for processing these types of photos that differ from others.

Here are three of the ones I liked most.
Nikon D500, 500mm F4.
Don’t have the shot info with me right now but I believe it was around 800 ISO, F4, 1/2500
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Very nice images.

I like the first and second image. The brush at the bottom of the frame detracts from the third one. The colors are spectacular.

I'm not sure of your editing program, but how would it look to darken and saturate the blue channel a little? I think the blues and oranges are outstanding.

One thing to watch for in these shots in intersections and overlaps. I'm looking to avoid having the wing touch the head or foot, and that is happening in some of the birds. In the third image that would be a kick out. The second image might be cropped a little tighter to eliminate the leading bird and have just the one bird with great colors. The first image is probably okay as is because of the balance with three birds, but ideally I would not have the wing touching the head.

These overlaps and touches are what makes it hard to photograph groups of birds. High frame rates can make a big difference and give you more to choose from.
 
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EricBowles said:
Very nice images.

I like the first and second image. The brush at the bottom of the frame detracts from the third one. The colors are spectacular.

I'm not sure of your editing program, but how would it look to darken and saturate the blue channel a little? I think the blues and oranges are outstanding.

One thing to watch for in these shots in intersections and overlaps. I'm looking to avoid having the wing touch the head or foot, and that is happening in some of the birds. In the third image that would be a kick out. The second image might be cropped a little tighter to eliminate the leading bird and have just the one bird with great colors. The first image is probably okay as is because of the balance with three birds, but ideally I would not have the wing touching the head.

These overlaps and touches are what makes it hard to photograph groups of birds. High frame rates can make a big difference and give you more to choose from.
Click to expand...

I agree on the wing cutting through the head, something I noticed after picking these 3 and posting them. I may go back and look again to see if I have a better freeze frame in that shot sequence. I think I fired off about 100 shots so I may have overlooked a better option.

I am using Lightroom, did a very quick edit on these and had thought about doing some work with the background colors as well, just hadn’t made the time to do it yet. We get some great sunsets this time of year in South TX.
 
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