Frigatebird Silhouette

[Bill Foxworthy]

Canon 40D, 100-400L,
Today, 3 seconds of capture, a buffer full, couldn't redo any settings. I wouldn't know what setting to use any way. This is what my 40D pulled out for me. I have never seen this bird in my area before. A beautiful sight to see flying. Wish I had done it justice :(
1/8000, f/7.1, spot metering

[Arthur Morris]

Sharp, and I like the cloud. I'd crop a bit from the left and the bottom to tighten this up and then go blacker on the SILH.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

I like the idea and the cloud but the edges of the bird look a bit soft and I agree with making the bird darker.

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Bill,

I also like the composition but looks out of focus in my monitor. The cloud really adds to it but I wish I could see more details under the wings.

[Brian Wong]

Canon 40D, 100-400L,
Today, 3 seconds of capture, a buffer full, couldn't redo any settings. I wouldn't know what setting to use any way. This is what my 40D pulled out for me. I have never seen this bird in my area before. A beautiful sight to see flying. Wish I had done it justice :(
1/8000, f/7.1, spot metering

Hi Bill!

If the intention was not for a dark silhouette, my suggestion is to try what I recently learned while on Jim Neiger and James Shadle's workshop. The technique is to use manual exposure, with the initial exposure setting to something neutral. Then the idea is to practice letting in more light, or restricting the light simply (actually requires lots of practice) "click" your aperture or speed dial, depending if your subject is dark or light.

In this case, as the bird flew overhead, quickly "click" over for more light before you press the shutter. It really helped me to practice on white birds, and black birds as they presented themselves in real time. I think RAM gave a good description somewhere ... sorry but I can't find it now.

[Bill Foxworthy]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions and Brian for the info. After viewing the files I had taken of this bird flying here, I thought about what you were saying and it makes a lot of sense. I need to be more prepared to adjust my camera with out even viewing what setting it has. One other thing I noticed was I was in A1 servo mode and had all points of focus highlighted which I hate to use. I would Rather use a central point of focus than all points which is almost the worst thing I have ever seen on a camera. Maybe it is just me but every time I use all points I have the worse focusing and hardly any keepers. I used it again today and had better results but also lost a lot of in flight images. Oh well. lesson learned and I hope I have better results next time. Thanks all,
bf