More effort with my new gear - Waxwing

[Richard Greenwood]

Things are slowly improving!!

One from yesterday - C&C welcomed

7D & 100-400 IS, f6.3, +0.7 EV, 1/500, ISO320, 400mm



Richard

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Richard, shooting with a new kit and getting into a groove with it is an exciting and fun thing to do. As the camera becomes more like an extension of your eyes, you will have more time to think about the basics of the capture. Areas to consider in this image are focus, shooting angle, choice of environment, and exposure. You gave your camera quite a challenge by asking it to focus on the bird amongst all the leaves, berries, and branches. It appears that the focus was picked on the berries just under the bird, so there is no critical focus on the head or eye. The bird is quite high in the tree - any chance of adjusting your shooting angle or finding lower branches where they are feeding? The red berries are visual magnets, and the eye is drawn to them in favor of your more subdued (in terms of color and light) subject. When I looked at this image, I guessed that the histogram would show a pretty even distribution of light (lots of bright pixels and lots of dark pixels), and I confirmed that by taking the image into PS and looking at the histogram. What that tells me is that the meter would have done a pretty good job with this scene (what mode did you use?) and I would not have added any exposure compensation. I might have been wrong and used a curves adjustment or some such, but I do feel that the image is a tad too bright.

Lots to think about, but to me that is the fun of bird photography - challenging myself to get better images always. Keep shooting and keep posting here and you will improve every day!

[Richard Greenwood]

Thanks Kerry.

So much to learn with the new kit!!

I was using AV mode. The problem I had with these birds on Sunday was that they did a quick "smash & grab" on the berries as there was a Fieldfare guarding the food source. This meant I only had time to fire off a few shots before they were gone & the feeding opportunities ended.

This was only my second really serious shooting session. I can see the huge potential with this new kit, just need to get out more & practice. It's pity work gets in the way sometimes beacuse we've had fantastic light here in the UK for the last couple of days!!

Thanks for the advice again. More shots to follow as I progress.

Richard

[Kerry Perkins]

Richard, you are welcome! It is very common in bird photography that we only have fleeting seconds to make the shot. Many bird species, especially the passerines and hummingbirds, are seldom in one spot long enough for us to take a lot of images and try things out. We need to be aware, ready, and have a good grasp of what it takes to get that shot. This will become second nature to you as you practice, practice, and practice some more. Keep up the good work, we are here to help. To paraphrase an old saying, if you can't shoot a lot - shoot a little, but keep on shooting!

[Faraaz Abdool]

Hi Richard - I use the same set up as you do, and of course there is the period of getting used to your gear that is completely necessary! So my advice to you would be 1) Keep shooting (as Kerry said), 2) If you can't go out shooting, spend as much time as you can READING about your gear. Read the manual, read about others' experiences with this set up, read about the problems people experienced and how they overcame them. And check out Artie's 7D Users Guide - that helped me a LOT. 3) Enable all AF modes by going into custom functions...this would enable the spot AF (useful for situations like yours here, with bird in lots of clutter) as well as the AF point expansion (useful for birds in flight)
As for your image, I can't say anything that Kerry hasn't already said :-). Looking forward to seeing more of your work!