female Cardinal upclose

[Hazel Grant]

I have the whole bird on photo but it looks very generic so I thought I'd try a close portrait crop. It looks good on my monitor but not so clear here....???
Nikon D40x, program mode, 1/640, f5.6, exposure -1 for a cloudy overcast day. 280 mm handheld.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Hazel You might want to check your histogram Under the mentioned conditions don't think -1 is the correct compensation? Histogram should show underexposure with no data on the last box to the right !!! Remember the key is having data on that box.

As presented it looks like a large crop so any little problem is magnified, it is very soft. I do like what you were trying to do in principle by cropping tight to eliminate distractions. Its a great idea but not by cropping. You don't want to go much past removing 20 to 30 % of the image. If you have a huge MegaPixel camera could go a little more.

I like the eye contact and raised crest. Doing some PS to open the shadows would introduce lots of noise and might not be a good idea !! Looking forward to the next one !!!

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks. I'm still learning that histogram usage. Question: are you saying that the photo is soft because of the underexposure, or is has it become softened because of the large crop situation? If it is the crop that caused the softness, I'll post the original and see what you see in it. Thanks!

[denise ippolito]

Hazel, agree w/ Alfred on the techs. Nice HA !! Happy Holidays!!!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Hazel,
Very good advise given by Mr. Forns...just keep on practicing; practice makes better...:D
Happy Holidays to you and your family...:cool: