Sailfish in flight..

[sean_in_singers]

Hi all, first post here. Result of a fishing trip over the weekend (not mentioning the hundreds of splashes I captured!). Using my new 40D and a 100-400L (rented for the weekend). I shot RAW on 1/1250's. Captured this sailfish on a great jump. I have not modified in any way, particularly interested in opinions on how I should post process (not real experienced!).

PS What looks like dust bunnies on the sky are actually birds!

Cheers
Sean

[mikerault]

I might try to balance the image a bit by cropping, the off center for this doesn't work for me, but that just is me.

Mike

[Scorpio]

I'd crop it right around the horizon and just to the left of the splash. I'd also double check the white baklance and kick up the saturation a bit, since it's looking just a touch gray overall.

[darosk]

Yeah - it's definitely begging a crop - great action though!

[bckane]

Ok let see....love the shot, I would like to see better crop and It would have been better to see the fish enter the picture instead of leaving the frame....but all and all "Nice Catch"
BTW didnt know if you wanted me to post a differnet crop and framing of your picture....didnt see the "IMAGE EDITTING OK"

This a quick edit of what I was taking about
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/bckane/sail.jpg

[sean_in_singers]

Thanks for the feedback! I didn't know about the image editing OK, and don't know how to change it now, but Image Editing OK! Would appreciate it greatly.

I read that sailfish have been clocked leaving the water at 110Km! Bloody hard to get a decent shot. I especially found the 100-400 difficult, expecially at full zoom. I think I will stick to my 70-200 in future. Must say I love the 6.5fps on the 40D, what a beautiful camera...

Cheers
Sean

[babyduckmonger]

How's this for a quick edit?

[sean_in_singers]

Great! Thanks guys, appreciate the efforts. I love the first one from bckane, black border is very dramatic, and contrast looks great. When deciding the cropping to use, is there any 'rules of thumb' (from a vertical/horizontal ratio perspective?).

Thanks again for the help, will play with it on the weekend and post my finished image!

Cheers
Sean

[babyduckmonger]

bckane - I hadn't even thought about going ahead and adding all the water to the right. Wonderful improvement.

sean - For basic ratios, Google "rule of thirds." That should help get you on your way. Interestingly, bckane and I cropped to almost the exact same vertical proportions.

[Broncobear]

bckane edit is what i would go with on this shot, well captured.

[david888lee]

wow, i can't imagine how hard it must have been to get that shot and tiring! good job, i would suggest cropping it though, like the first edit, and maybe adding a tad of usm to sharpen it.

[Nooblet]

Great! Thanks guys, appreciate the efforts. I love the first one from bckane, black border is very dramatic, and contrast looks great. When deciding the cropping to use, is there any 'rules of thumb' (from a vertical/horizontal ratio perspective?).

Thanks again for the help, will play with it on the weekend and post my finished image!

Cheers
Sean
Other than the "rule of thirds", the inherent motion of the fish is important. The sailfish is facing to the right and gives the illusion that's the direction it's heading, however most of the open space is on the left in your photo. This leads my eyes/mind to think that the fish can't go any further. Of course, on an adrenaline filled fishing trip like that I can understand how that can be overlooked! :)

The way bckane cropped the photo takes this into account and fixes the issue by giving the subject/fish somewhere to go! Love it!

Good shot. :)

[bckane]

I would have never even dreamed of adding extra space to the subject. But I had a photo of my first bird in flight and wish I would have shot the bird in the center of the frame. A member of the board editing the photo the same way I edited the sailfish. Nice edit to remember...:)
Brian