First attempt at BIF

[Joseph Facey]

Photo taken this past week under the watchful eye of Glenn Bartley of Victoria BC. Canon 7D ii camera with Canon 100-400 mm ii lens. Manual focus. 1/2000 sec. f/5.6. ISO 400. Evaluative metering. So happy with the sharpness of my 1st. attempt.

[arash_hazeghi]

welcome to the forum Joseph! Mallards are fun to shoot and a great subject to practice. Good job getting him against the foliage. This is good for a first attempt but it could be sharper. is it a big crop ? was the RAW tack sharp? I wish the wings were fully down and he is crammed in the LRC, I'd put more space behind and under him. It also appears to have a yellow color cast. Be sure to checkout and post in ETL forum where you'll get lots of good feedback

TFS

[Joseph Facey]

Thank you so much arash, that is the kind of feedback I need. I will look up the ETL forum.
best regards,

joseph.

[Tony Whitehead]

Welcome, Joseph. You have chosen one of the most challenging things (Bird in flight- BIF) for your first post. If you're using manual focus you are making it even more difficult but guess this may be a typo as manual exposure is ideal for BIF against changing backgrounds. Good advice from Arash.

[arash_hazeghi]

yes manual focus shouldn't be used for bird photography, I think it's a typo

[Joseph Facey]

Hi Tony, I obviously posted in the wrong section and the next will be in ETL. As this was my very first BIF, I did not think it was that bad. Of course Composition and logic went out the window in just trying to get a clean shot. Much more difficult than I imagined. I was just happy to see catch light in the birds eyes so I am puzzled by arash's comment about it could sharper, how much sharper and what should I be looking for?. I believe I had better get my Camera and lenses calibrated first, not that I dispute arash's welcomed and valued comments. I have seen his works so all I can say is WOW. I did shoot in manual mode because the light was so poor. I have much to learn and have only been at this new hobby for 1.5 years however, that is why I am here. All of my posted images and comments are welcomed with C&C. Thank you both for taking the time to look and comment.

Best regards to you and arash.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Tony, I obviously posted in the wrong section and the next will be in ETL. As this was my very first BIF, I did not think it was that bad. Of course Composition and logic went out the window in just trying to get a clean shot. Much more difficult than I imagined. I was just happy to see catch light in the birds eyes so I am puzzled by arash's comment about it could sharper, how much sharper and what should I be looking for?. I believe I had better get my Camera and lenses calibrated first, not that I dispute arash's welcomed and valued comments. I have seen his works so all I can say is WOW. I did shoot in manual mode because the light was so poor. I have much to learn and have only been at this new hobby for 1.5 years however, that is why I am here. All of my posted images and comments are welcomed with C&C. Thank you both for taking the time to look and comment.

Best regards to you and arash.

Hi Joe,

When you say manual do you mean manual exposure or manual focus? I don't think anyone can manually focus on a flying bird with the precision that's required to get a sharp photo. Manual exposure was certainly the right choice here.

As for sharpness, you're right that we see the catch light, but it just doesn't look that sharp to my eyes. Sometimes the image could be a bit soft but you'd still see the catch light. Experience tells me that RAW may not have been quite sharp here, do you have a close crop from RAW ?

The other factor to consider is post processing, namely, noise reduction and sharpening that all affect the sharpness in the final presentation. I recommend not using NR on the bird that may soften the details. For output sharpening I use smart sharpen in PS, usually radius 0.5 and strength 100.

This example isn't a mallard but gives an idea what a tack sharp duck in flight should look like http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php/134091-Drake-Cinnamon-Teal


and here is an old Mallard frame I took many years back, I am not sure if I have the RAW file but if I find it I'll post a 100% crop of the details

160483

Hope this helps

[Joseph Facey]

Hi arash,

Now I understand what you are talking about. Yes, it was manual exposure (duh) and I see what you mean about sharpness. I am still learning Lightroom as well. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain what I didn't know or understand. Much appreciated!!!

Best regards,


Joseph.