Flying Cardinal

[kevin Hice]

Took this cardinal canon 5d mark11 3200 tv iso 400 white balance daylight post edit dpp and crop photoshop elements .Question is it to light should I back off a little and evidently if shooting smaller birds you need faster shutter speed to stop all blurr. Caught at feeder Critiques welcome. I should have cloned out small branch on right. Will wait for comments.

[Diane Miller]

Potentially a spectacular shot! I'm not sure what you're asking about light, though. The exposure looks good to me -- the histogram is always the best exposure meter for your adjustments in post.

I think you have two issues here. One is shutter speed as you mentioned -- these little guys move amazingly fast. Many of the shots you see with frozen wings are done with flash, where the exposure is from a flash duration of something like 1/10,000 sec. or more. The other issue is focus. The focus point is on the branch at the left edge of the frame, and the bird's head is closer, out of the depth of field. (You don't say what your aperture was, but I don't think even f/22 would cover this much depth effectively.) I find my 5D3 just doesn't have the speed to follow focus on something moving as fast as a small bird coming at much of an angle toward you. And of course you'd need to be in AI Servo with one focus point chosen and keeping it fight on the most important part of the subject. Not easy!! The lens can also be a limiting factor, and you haven't given us that. (It's always good to give everyone as much info as you can.)

But keep trying -- when shots like this work, they really are wonderful!

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Diane on my screen it looked too light here it looks good . I was shooting with 300 2.8 shot with 2x teleconverter at 5.6 your right hard to focus on these little guys.

[Diane Miller]

Excellent lens, even with the 2X! But I suspect you'll continue to be frustrated with the focus speed with subjects like this. (If not, let me know what you figured out!!) Once in a while you'll hit it, though. Just a lower percentage than with the expensive stuff.

The "background color" of the editing application can change our perception of an image, as can the ambient light in a room (variable with time of day?), and the angle at which some monitors are viewed.

[Randall Farhy]

Exposure looks fine, as Diane noted- the issue here is focus. If you're waiting for a jump off type of shot, you can try to pre-focus ahead of the birds position, which is not even close to 100% foolproof, but at least you won't be guaranteed an oof bird with a sharp branch. It all boils down to an educated guessing game and good fortune.

[David Kenny]

Kevin, I have been working on these types of shots as well. And your results here trump any of my attempts. I think with these shots controlling your environment will boost the keeper rate (Perch to Feeder parallel to the sensor plane). I may be wrong but I am going to test this out when the snow finally melts around here. I don't have a nice flash set up but I think with a controlled environment and sun it can work. It seems like with the smaller birds trying to get an in flight shot is extremely challenging. A lot of trial and error for me.

- Dave

[kevin Hice]

Thanks Dave My situation isn't really controlled to well I have a farm and have just tossed food on the ground and their are a hundred perches along the fence line. It would be more luck if I get a good shot.I should go in and clean it up more. Lots of honey suckle and that's a real chore to clean up.It has been fun though trying to get those hard shots.I miss a lot of shots because its too busy of a background or just not fast enough.The birds are a lot wilder than in my yard at home.But at home I don't have the right light or set up.I liked the shot of your cardinal .It is really hard to put it all together . Good luck