Karen Sharpe
January 2025 - Staying Warm
Original
About the Image(s)
We visited Antarctica in late February, 2020 right before Covid shut everything down. It was considered fairly late in the summer season and most of the young king penguins in the South Georgia Islands were already molting their fur in favor of waterproof feathers. We saw this little chick on its parent’s feet being kept warm under a layer of fat. It was too small, too late in the season and was the only one we saw of this size. I cropped it heavily for greater impact and it’s still sharp but I wonder if it is too cropped?
Nikon D7500 Nikkor 18-140 lens
ISO 400, f7.1, 1/800
This round’s discussion is now closed!
3 comments posted
Wow, you were so lucky to see this! And lucky to visit SG before they imposed all the HPAIV restrictions.
Personally, I think this image will do well in Nature, but for PT you are usually better off zooming out a bit, so you might want to try a wider crop.
Exposure-wise, I think you've done a good job bringing out the eye without making it look bleached. Penguin eyes are very hard to see in a photo, and based on the original I think you had to work at it. The fact that the head/face appears slightly unsharp is typical - there isn't much detail to be had. If you can also bring down the highlights in the BG a little more, that might help.
FWIW I have entered a number of SG images into PT over the past year and they haven't done very well overall. Thte ones that have gone through have been landscapes that have penguins in them, rather than images of penguins. You definitely have a strong nature story going though.
Lillian Posted: 01/06/2025 17:15:29
Personally, I think this image will do well in Nature, but for PT you are usually better off zooming out a bit, so you might want to try a wider crop.
Exposure-wise, I think you've done a good job bringing out the eye without making it look bleached. Penguin eyes are very hard to see in a photo, and based on the original I think you had to work at it. The fact that the head/face appears slightly unsharp is typical - there isn't much detail to be had. If you can also bring down the highlights in the BG a little more, that might help.
FWIW I have entered a number of SG images into PT over the past year and they haven't done very well overall. Thte ones that have gone through have been landscapes that have penguins in them, rather than images of penguins. You definitely have a strong nature story going though.
Lillian Posted: 01/06/2025 17:15:29
You experienced something that I have not seen.
Part of your penguin is sharp. I can see the neck is clearly in focus.
The light appears to becoming from side and somewhat back. This is a difficult situation for detail.
I wish the main subject penguin had more separation from its closest friend who distracts my eye from the main subject.
But to answer your question I did a bird in box crop. This includes the parts of the penguin that are clearly in focus. I have no strong opinion as your oringinal crop is fine with me too.
Of course even with big files cropping more that 50% is likely to degrade the image quality. With your OM System 150-400 Pro, you won't need to crop!
Your new lens would be just fine to take the exact photo that you cropped and capture way more detail. Posted: 01/06/2025 18:17:12
Part of your penguin is sharp. I can see the neck is clearly in focus.
The light appears to becoming from side and somewhat back. This is a difficult situation for detail.
I wish the main subject penguin had more separation from its closest friend who distracts my eye from the main subject.
But to answer your question I did a bird in box crop. This includes the parts of the penguin that are clearly in focus. I have no strong opinion as your oringinal crop is fine with me too.
Of course even with big files cropping more that 50% is likely to degrade the image quality. With your OM System 150-400 Pro, you won't need to crop!
Your new lens would be just fine to take the exact photo that you cropped and capture way more detail. Posted: 01/06/2025 18:17:12
It's quite a unique experience to see penguins in the wild. I appreciate you for sharing this. I agree to the crop Richard did. Interesting comments by Lillian. Posted: 01/30/2025 04:10:19