Pine Warbler Female
10 14 12_4194_edited-1 by Clyde Hopper, on Flickr
Photographed in the backyard . I was in a portable blind with tripod and flash .
Darkened Bg ,Levels adjustment ,sharpened .
Camera Nikon D90 Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200) Aperture f/9.0 Focal Length 500 mm ISO Speed 400
Last edited by Peter Kes; 10-20-2012 at 05:29 AM.
Hi Clyde- Nice non-distracting background and a plain but reasonable perch for the warbler. The fill flash worked well with your main light coming from the left. The subject is lacking some detail and I think some extra sharpening might bring it out. I would have perhaps bumped the ISO up to 800 (does the D90 perform well there?) so that you could speed up your shutter. 1/200s is pretty slow for a 500, even on a tripod. Was is the VR version of the lens. Your aperture was chosen I suppose to provide depth of field but f9 is pretty small. I assume the lens was f4 max.
Last edited by John Chardine; 10-20-2012 at 06:40 AM.
Hello John, And thank you for such a great and detailed Critique . On the subject of sharpening ,I'm still not sure how to tell when too much is ,well ,Too much .I try usm in three applications ,Ive tried sharpening ,and I have used High pass filter .I have read numerous post on the net ,and have ,and fully read more than once Artie's Digital basics. Still ,I'm not sure exactly when to stop sharpening. I'm really not that thick headed , I think i may be over complicating things though . Am I looking for Halos around each pixel of for halos around the subject like you see CA ?Originally Posted by John Chardine
The D90 will perform at ISO 800 but that is as far as it will go and be usable .(In my opinion ) However ,1/200 SS is max sink speed thus the reason I chose it . I don't have as of yet , a flash that can hss , but a Nikon flash is in the near future .the lens is the sigma 150-500 with vr,and I had it on .
The way I think of flash is that ,there are two exposures . One is the Bg controlled by the SS . The second is the exposure on the subject controlled by the flash distance to subject and power level /as well as f/stop . If this is a wrong school of thought please point me in a better direction .
What should I look for in a perch ? just add one with moss ? I will start researching this ,thank you for pointing it out !
Clyde,
Greetings. The bg looks to have some color breakdown of some sort (reddish posterized stripe that runs through the bg but can be identified just to the right of the subject). There are also processing artifacts in a small sliver across the top of the image middle to right. I like the simple composition and the pose. I don't know flash but need faster ss equivalent.
Cheers,
-Michael-
Agree with what's already been said (I have a D90 too and don't like bumping ISO past 640, but 800 is doable with some good noise reduction). I do like the pose very much. The warbler seems curious about the photographer. :)
Thank You Michael ,I see exactly what your talking about ,Now . Both are from poor Quality post work .(I went back and looked at the raw file ,the reddish color is not there )The sliver Across the top is a easy fix .The reddish stripe I haven't been able to make better. I can make it far worst ,but ,not better yet . I may have to start from the raw file and just do a better job period .
Hello Jeannean ,I have to be absolutely sure to keep the Histogram to the far right at 800 ISO ,and then like you said Noise reduction in post .
The birds were interested in the flash . If I'm shooting ducks or turkeys the flash sends them running . The backyard birds looked to see what it was . One Nuthatch came in the blind ...Got to love it !
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