Yellow-rumpedWarbler

[Jonathan J. Weber]

As an elder newbie to the digital format and new poster to the forum , I was pleased with this capture in my yard on Lake Ontario. The shot was taken with my Canon 50D and EF 100-400mm lens at about 15 feet. The only editing was with Picasa3 to crop and minor basic tweaking. As a 71 year old aspiring bird photographer, I thought I would post this image for comment from the pros.

Thank you for your considerations.

Regards,

Jonathan

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Jonathan64/IMG_74122.jpg

[Randy Stout]

Jonathan:

A big welcome to BPN, a great place to learn and grow as a nature photographer!

You have a nice look back pose, clean background, with almost a spotlight effect behind the bird, probably a out of focus branch.

Be sure to include your camera setting details, such as shutter speed, aperture and ISO, it really helps critique the image. IN this case, the bird is a bit soft, head more than back, so possibly a focusing issue, although a very slow shutter speed could cause a similar effect.

The yellow patch on the rump is overexposed, there is a loss of detail there. You might be able to recover that in your processing if you are shooting in RAW, which I strongly encourage.

There looks like some type of processing artifact on the stub of branch on the far right. Did you have to remove a branch there?

So, give use some more details and I think we can help some more!

Cheers

Randy

PS: Be sure to comment on other folks images, a great way to train your eye, and build the BPN community spirit.

[Jonathan J. Weber]

Randy,

Thank you for the welcome and informative protocol in your constructive response.

That photo was taken earlier in the month and didn't save all of the details afforded in the Picasa column after download, but partially recall some of it - below. I also had overlooked in the "edit" mentioned, which you caught in name of artifact, is that I did use the eraser in my Photoshop 7 on a trial basis. That is all I know how to use on it in newbie starter mode.

The shot was taken an hour before sunset - woods in background was 25 yards from subject that produced the spotlight, which was a low level sun reflection.

This is what I remember:

- tripod mounted with moving gimbal head

- AV mode

- evaluative metering

- a -2/3 stop under

- auto focus

- ISO 400, 1/40 sec at f/5.6

This shot is a different bird in profile that came in with that one 6 ft. away . The exposure settings were the same. I'll be more attentive to retain
data on technique and exposure for photos included in future threads. These were the only two photos out of a quick 25 that were in acceptable focus.

Jonathan

]http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f2/Jonathan64/IMG_73082.jpg (http://s44.photobucket.com/user/Jonathan64/media/IMG_73082.jpg.html)/