Song Sparrow

[Gail Spitler]

Hi All
Wow ..... finally discovered that an extension tube can make a hugh difference when photographing small birds. The other interesting thing for me about photographing this fellow was that especially when he puffed his chest out when singing and proclaiming his territory, the normal camera read exposure produced whites on the chest that were burned out. I guess it seemed like such a small area of white, but burning out the white chest did make for crummy images.

The image was cropped on the left and top, slight PSElements adjustments
Canon 40D, aperture priority, 1/640 at f/5.6, EV with -2/3 compensation, 500mm f/4 lens with 25mm ext. tube

Comments much appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Gail Spitler
Birtish Columbia Canada

[Bruce Gove]

Hi Gail, Nice song sparrow - I like the pose and the bg is nice. Here's what I know about your exposure question. My guess is that your meter was responding to the darker tones in the green bg and decided your image needed more light - that's why the highlights on the birds chest were blown out. As Alred Forns told me, you have to take the bg into consideration when deciding on exposure compensation.

Bruce

[Gus Cobos]

Gail, very nice composition and colors, love the pleasing background...:)

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks fellows and for the reminder about the background exposure; especially on small birds the bg is going to be major. I guess the histogram should have told me that too. I kept looking at it and couldn't figure out why it was skewed to the left. Duh..... Isn't it amazing how many little things can lead to less than desired images.
Gail

[Julie Kenward]

You still managed to get a beautiful sparrow image though. Look at him sing!

[Alfred Forns]

Good explanation Bruce !!!! The bird is a small part of the metering area The camera meter will try to make the dark green a neutral color and add light so the bird will be overexposed. With that bg you probably needed an extra 1/3 less or more. If you are setting up and waiting for the bird might want to take a test exposure to be ready Always rely on the histogram.

Love the singing pose with the open beak Very appealing. Might tighten the image a bit by cropping form the right and just a tad from left !!!

One think to keep in mind with extension tubes There will be some light loss and since you are photographing at close range the dof will be minimal particularly with long lenses. For fun you can stack extension tubes Normally I carry three 25mm tubes all the time !!!!!

[Gail Spitler]

Thanks all. Never thought about doubling up on the same size extension tube. Great idea.
Gail Spitler

[Alfred Forns]

I have lots of images with 75mm of tubes and a 2X or stack converters It is a great macro lens !!!