Looks like lighting was a challenge. Most prefer to see a bird on a natural roost rather than a man-made one. Personally, I'd have shot him too since I'm a huge CCC fan.
CM, we sometimes need to take perches where we can get them (always an issue for me with raptors who seem to love power poles). Given that, I like this, but would consider cropping off the pole on the left which is distracting to me. The lighting did seem to be a challenge, and I would consider brightening up the eyes a bit. I would love to have one of these guys in my portfolio.
Hi CM- I'll focus on the techs for the image. Why did you use f13? Not sure what lens you were using but you could have opened up to f8 for example, and gain 3x the amount of light for a lower ISO and/or higher shutter speed. In the "game" of bird photography, I give no. 1 priority to shutter speed, second to ISO and only third to aperture. Re. the latter, I usually shoot 1/3-1 stop down from wide open.
You did do a nice job with the exposure to get some detail in what would have been a dark subject against a bright sky.
You don't mention how the camera metering was set.
In shooting in a situation like this, I'd definitely dial in at least +2 exposure compensation on matrix metering.
Or, alternatively, spot meter on a mid-light point of the bird itself. If there seems to be time, as there often is when a bird is perched, vary your settings on both exposure compensation, and metering mode.
Hi CM. Great shot. Everyone has covered most points. As a passionate birder may I ask what family this bird belongs to. It almost crow or raven or falcon - like. We have some amazing birdlife on our planet. thanks
Hi CM,
You were "behind the 8 ball" with this image from the get go!
It looks like this was midday blazing sun . I never shoot between 10:30AM and 3:00PM because the light is just too harsh. It is hard to walk away from something between these hours especially if it is a new bird for you. I would take a shot as a "record shot" but otherwise file it away for my ow viewing. Because you were shooting up into the bright sun, one underexposes the bird so you must shoot with an exposure compensation of +1 to +2. This way , the bird is correctly exposed for and you do not have to "bring up the exposure " in PP , thus introducing noise.
The perch is not very attractive and takes away from that gorgeous bird.
Finally, the steep angle that you are shooting at is not ideal.
So my advice is get up early and wait for that bird to land in a lower and more natural perch. Good field skills are just as important as the fundamentals of photography to make a good image. Looking forward to seeing your next shot,
Gail
Crested Caracara
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