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Nice image of a lovely bird. I never had the chance to encounter one yet but I wish I had such an image in my collection.
50-60% is a rather heavy crop but still you should be able to get a better quality out of your gear (I'm also using the 60D, with the 100-400 and the 400/5.6 however). Your suggestion is the first thing that came to my mind. The 60D is a very capable camera at ISO400 so there is no need to go lower except maybe in very harsh light conditions. No need to be afraid of the noise at this level. Raising your SS to 1600 would have helped, especially since you were handholding (is the 70-300 stabilized?). A rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should be _at least_ "1 / equivalent focal length", in your case, 420 (300 x 1.6 crop factor). So at 1/400, a faster shutter speed would have helped you alot.
If you had been able to move a bit to the right, you would also have got a better head angle from the bird and better lighting since the light would have been roughly behind you rather than from the side.
I think I see some artefacts from the distractions you removed on the right, and also on the left top side. This could probably be improved with the healing brush.
Exposure looks good to me and I like the catchlight in the eye.
Keep shooting this bird. You're very lucky to have it in your backyard.
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David,
Good comments from PA and you are correct to focus on the shutter speed. The opportunity here as you noted is to bump us the ISO and shutter speed have you ever hear of the sunny 16 rule:
The sunny 16 rule is a way to meter for correct exposure during daylight but will make you think about proper exposure settings. I could write about it for hours but it is valentines day and must get to dinner. I want you to start thinking about the relationship between ISO and aperture and shutter. One quick tip, do not use ISO 100 much too restrictive.
The crop is too aggressive too, as a general rule the subject should represent at least 15/20% of the frame,..well maybe that is my rule but 50% is out of range and hurts the image quality. Love the species and you will improve with every post ,...keep em coming.
oh,..tell me more about your settings,..what mode (Tv, AV or M) what metering (Eval, spot) and what was the time of day?
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 02-14-2013 at 05:53 PM.
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P-A and Jeff thanks for your replies. I was pretty sure that 50% crop was to much but thought I would give it a shot anyway. After I came back inside I got to thinking about the ISO and realized that I could have bumped it to 400 and then increased my shutter speed but by then it was too late.
Jeff, I do know about the sunny 16 rule and used it a lot in the 80's when I was shooting film but I don't think about much now. As for mode I was in Av mode, using centered weighted average metering and it was around noon with overcast skies (I think in the OP I said late afternoon).
I will watch my crop and my ISO the next time.
David
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Lovely bird, pose and BG. Exposure looks good. I don't see any reason to photograph birds at anything less than ISO 400 except on rare occasions. You should not have any problems getting this type of image sharp at 1/400sec, although a higher speed would help insure that it's sharp esp if you are handholding or the bird is moving quite a bit. I am not too familiar with your Tamron lens. Since this is an F5.6 lens at 300mm, I would think you would achieve sharper images at F8.
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David....... I agree with advice already given. I think the ideal situation would have been to use f8 with a shutter speed of 1/800 ( when handholding) with an ISo of 400. Be careful cropping! Get as close as you can to avoid cropping. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
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Marina & Bob thanks for your comments I will keep them in mind in the future.
David
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