Common Gallinule adultCommon Gallinule adult – Nikon D70, handheld, f5.6, 1/50, ISO 1600, Nikkor 70-300mm VR at 300mm, natural light

Not that long ago Common Gallinules (Gallinula galeata) were called Common Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus), it will take me some time to get used to the new name.

This image was created at Sawgrass County Park in Pinellas County, Florida under the shade of trees in low light about 5 years ago. It was taken with my first DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera which by now is considered older than dirt and a low price VR lens. The D70 wasn’t well known for how it handled higher ISO’s but this image was taken at ISO 1600 and I was rather pleased with the results.  I applied a small amount of noise reduction (NR) to the background in post processing with no noise reduction on the bird or perch, I masked the bird and perch and applied sharpening to just those subjects.

The key was to get the exposure right at the time the image was created, increasing exposure in post processing can introduce unwanted noise.

While it might be nice to be able to afford the latest, most up to date camera body and to have the best of lenses, quality images can be created with older model camera bodies and lower cost, shorter focal length lenses.

Mia

*I am away for a while so I have prescheduled this post, please feel free to share it with your friends and family.