Hi guys!! A couple of days ago I decided to check out a local pond to catch a few birds and continue practicing. This was taken with the Canon 7D and the Bigmos. PP involved some minor cropping and the usual curves, contrast, NR and sharpening....no crazy cloning or extensive PP was made. The pics were taken in the afternoon at around 4:00PM and the sun was in front of me and low. Not the ideal hour at that particular location. I will go in the AM hours or perhaps try a cloudy afternoon.
Hi Oscar. Nice Greenie! The focus looks good, but I agree that the light is less than ideal. You are much better going out in the early am hours or just before sundown to avoid the harsh light (cloudy days can extend your usable shooting hours too). Using your EXIF data, I see that you shot this at 403mm and f/8 at ISO 800. I would suggest opening up your aperture a bit (~ f/6.1 range) to throw the BG oof. This would have also allowed you to use a lower ISO and avoid noise. As it is, the BG is quite distracting. Since you are using the Bigmos, a bit more zoom could have also eliminated some of the BG elements. Keep shooting and TFS!
I like the Greenie, shooting in that harsh of light is tough. The only I would add is that I found the reflections from the harsh light on the leaves in the foreground a little distracting, so maybe a little selective exposure adjustment on them might be helpful.
Great comments above and you are right, light is too harsh. Remember we shoot the light not the subject. The camera cannot process strong/harsh light I read the eye can see eight stops of light and the camera can process only five. Anyway, without getting into the weeds the morning/evening/overcast light is what you seek - thats the way to go. Lets see some more from you with better conditions.
Thanks for the feedback! This is what I wanted...honest respectful critique. I was in another board that consisted on "groupies" always complimenting each other, got old real fast. Im working on a few other pics and will post them up later!
Green Heron
