Shot this image about 9AM yesterday with the sun began to get intense. I focused on the Kestrel eye, so the back may be a little soft. I wish I had used f8 or f11 instead. Appreciate your comments and suggestions for future improvements.
1Dx
500f4II + 1,4X III
1/2500
f5.6
ISO-400
Evaluative metering off the sky and open up by 1/3 EV
Manual Mode
Tripod
I love the pose and colors as well. I agree the bird maybe a little soft. Exposure looks really good to me. You have a couple of dust spots......one at the bottom edge and a very small one near the top just left of center. Very nice image, not an easy species to get close to.
Fantastic moment with nature as Joel mentioned this is a hard one to capture. Joel mentioned the dust spots maybe clean the sensor,..but for now just use the clone tool to clean up the frame. Maybe f/8 or 11 might help, but see the large catch-light in the eye, that is a sign of motion blur and is probably the reason for the soft image, it could be the wind, the tripod technique or just movement. I might suggest a great thread in the "Education and Tutorial Forum" on tripod technique by James Shadel - it helped me. The subject placement if fine but there is an opportunity to reduce the negative space on the top of the frame and move the subject to the right,.. consider alternative crop with more focus on the subject. Keep em coming,.. this is a great post and thanks for sharing.
Oh,..nice technique using a tripod and setting the exposure for the bright spots, the whites look good.
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 03-02-2013 at 01:16 PM.
"Maybe f/8 or 11 might help, but see the large catch-light in the eye, that is a sign of motion blur and is probably the reason for the soft image, it could be the wind, the tripod technique or just movement."
Hi Jeff, I had dozens of images and everyone looks the same. I focused right on the eye and check AF point in DPP. It was right on and the eye looks sharp enough for me. and since I shot at 1/2500, so I doubt if wind or slight motion blur is the cause. I had a Gitzo 3530LS tripod with Wimberley V2 head and I have been practicing Artie's technique for flight, so I think this should be OK.
"I might suggest a great thread in the "Education and Tutorial Forum" on tripod technique by James Shadel - it helped me."
I will, I did a quick search, but have not found it yet. But I did find James.
I understand what you are saying about the smaller aperture more DoF might help with detail and that is true. In this case the large catch-light is usually one of the classic telling signs of motion-blur,..something to at least keep in mind going forward. The tripod was only one of three potential reasons mentioned. Anyway, just trying to help you get more detail in the image. Using a tripod and 1/2500 is a good start and the detail is pretty good as posted. Just curious, how much crop was used in this image? Using Artie's technique is great, he taught me 80% of everything I know about bird photography the man is simply amazing!
Keep em coming and post some of the others from that day, a magnificent species!
A link to the tripod thread is located below just to close that loop, not saying this is an issue here (look at frame #4)
Thank you for sending the link on tripod by James. That is a lot to remember about the foot and leg bracing. I certainly could practice better tripod technique. In this instance, I approached the bird by shielding myself with a bush. She was a bit skittish and would fly off. then I worked myself thru the dry brush and finally got thru an opening. I quickly put my tripod on the ground, push down once or twice, mounted the lens and shot.
The image was cropped quite a bit, and I attach the original here. I wish I could get closer, but there was a thick bush blocking the way. And I kicked myself for leaving my backpack with the 2X on the side of the trail when I decided to approach her.
I had a close up of this same bird last weekend with the 2X, but the light was not a nice as it was mid day sun. I could post later if you would like to see.
Yes, that large crop explains the bit of softness in the image; however,..I would have taken the shot too especially if that was as close as possible. Love to see the 2X shot, much more FL but with that comes more variables as well. The 2X shot requires great technique and with a 1000mm FL + camera crop factor it will be interesting to see what you got.
I bet your heart was pumping a 1000 miles an hour when you saw this beauty,...what a great day!!
ps: don't kick your self too much for leaving the 2X behind, keeping up with gear is one of the real challenges of photography. Today I took off with the 7D and the batteries were almost dead,..duh!!
Last edited by Jeff Cashdollar; 03-02-2013 at 09:37 PM.
I love the shot of this very pretty Kestrel. Agree the IQ was hurt by the large crop, but I still like it a lot. I rarely can get within a 100 yrds of one.
Female Kestrel Looking Back
