Motif: Reed Bunting in Reeds

[SeanKP]

Sigma 500mm f4.5 with the 1DS Mark II, handheld.
ISO 320, Aperture Priority, F4.5 @ 1/640 sec. -1 2/3 EC (spot metering)
Slight crop.

This is an oldie and definitely flawed but is still one of my favourite images that I have taken. It's also one of the many RAW files I lost when I managed to destroy two hard drives within a week! :(

It was a snatched shot. I was walking by the reed bed on my way somewhere else when I spotted this bird and the backlit reeds. I managed to get about 10 shots off in burst mode before it flew. I did have time to try and find a slightly better position but was severely limited by the angle of the path to the reeds. I can't recall for the life of me the theory behind my exposure settings but they seem to have worked ok in this instance as I don't believe I had to do much in the way of post-processing. Can anyone explain why?

The bird was dead centre in the frame and I cropped to get it as much off centre as I could whilst retaining as much of the backlit reeds as possible. Some folks suggested I should get the bird bigger in the frame but I did try that and it just doesn't work for me.

Comments appreciated. Thanks for looking.
Sean

[Desmond Chan]

The light on the reeds looks marvallous. The entire image looks to me just...shiny :D And you've got those details on the bird. My nit-pick would be more separation between the beak and the reeds.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Sean I think I can explain the why the exposure compensation worked !!!!!!

If you spot meter here ..... where do you think you are metering on? and how much is the spot? On camera meters are not true spot meters like the hand **** one degree spot meters. Even with a 500 mm lens the spot was not one degree It could have landed on a darker area ten tried to open up making the exposure correct. Lots of chances in this way !!!

Bird placement is just something done to taste In most instances a small bird in frame will look best closer to one of the corners rather than toward the middle of the frame. No hard rule on this but it is the norm.

This image has an excellent feel and gorgeous light I can see why it would be one of your favorites. Bird placement wise I would have composed the image with the bird more to the loser left corner and given myself a little room for post processing tweaking !!!

Did you get someone to check out your HDs Maybe some info can be saved, bummer !!!

[Harold Davis]

love the feel and the light in this one, sean!!! and the exposure of the bird looks great!!

[Julie Kenward]

Sean, I went ahead and did a crop close to what Al suggested. I think it puts a little more focus on the bird and less on the "hotter" areas of the image. You really caught some beautiful light here and gave the bird a lovely backdrop. Nicely done!

I also did a bit of a gaussian blur (just a tiny bit) to help add even more emphasis on the bird.

[Nonda Surratt]

For a quick grab it work extremely well, love the light and the weeds with the bird.

[SeanKP]

Hi all. Thanks for all the comments. Sorry to have posted and run like that. I suddenly had a shed load of work to do and then it was time to head off to France where I don't have access to the internet.

Desmond, it's not obvious at this small size but actually the reeds are in his beak so separation would be impossible.

LOL, Alfred, so you're saying I just got lucky with the exposure. I guess that's the case as I don't think I understood exposure theory very well at the time. Oh, and I did try and get into a better position but the geography of the path and the reeds and the view through to the bird just didn't allow it.

Julie, thanks for taking the time to do the edit. I know that many folks will prefer your version to mine but I'm really reluctant to sacrifice those back-lit reeds in search of better placement of and emphasis on the bird.

Thanks again to all.
Sean