Last week I had a large flock of American Goldfinches around our feeders. We have this specie around all summer, but never have I seen so many at one time. They had all molted to their winter plumage and seemed as though they were migrating, but I am not at all sure. I wasn't aware that they do migrate. Anyway they are still here eating me out of house and home. Thanks for any coments you might make as they are alwas usefull. Shooting data follows:
Nikon D4
2012:09:27 16:11:19
300mm
300mm (in 35mm film)
1/3200 sec, f/3.5
Mode: Manual
Metering: Multi-segment
ISO: 800
White balance: Fine weather
Flash: Off
File size: 15.6MB
Image size: 735 x 882
Color space: AdobeRGB
Saturation: Normal
Sharpness: Normal
Contrast: Normal
Color profile: Adobe RGB (1998)
Nice goldfinch image, smartly placed in the frame, nice sparkle in the eye. I also like the split in the perch just to add a little complexity.
Your techs as stated are interesting 1/3200 at iso800? I'm focusing on that because I see a lot of digital noise on the bird itself, though
the background looks clean as can be. If you really did achieve 1/3200 for the exposure, a definite suggestion would be to lower your iso,
which would help address the noise and still give you plenty of shutter speed for portrait work at 300mm...
Super comp, and good pose. Perch looks good too and I agree the split in it adds a nice touch. Good advice from Shawn in regards to the techs, and I see some softness around the subject's contour (head and shoulder). Perhaps some more precise masking of the bird is needed to touch up the BG. These guys' numbers build every year up here after the breeding season is done and they spend the winter months raiding nyger seeds off my feeders.
American Goildfinch flock
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